Agenda item

Response to the Recommendations of the Task Group on Hate Crime

Report of the Executive Director, Place

Minutes:

6.1

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director, Place, providing information on the Council’s response to the recommendations of this Committee’s Cross-Party Task Group on Hate Crime.

 

 

6.2

In attendance for this item were Maxine Stavrianakos (Head of Neighbourhood Intervention and Tenant Support) and Chief Inspector Ian Proffitt (South Yorkshire Police).

 

 

6.3

Maxine Stavrianakos took the Committee through the report, highlighting the various challenges identified by the Task Group and focusing on the recommendations made by the Group.

 

 

6.4

Ian Proffitt, who had held the post of Temporary Chief Inspector of the Support Hub (City Lead for Hate Crime) and who had contributed to the work of the Task Group, referred to the ‘Hate Hurts.  Report It’ campaign, which had been launched in February 2017, to raise awareness of hate crime in South Yorkshire.  In conjunction with the campaign, the police have also been working with partner organisations to encourage reporting. The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) and bus companies were also supporting the campaign by displaying posters on buses and trams, and at Travel South Yorkshire interchanges across the county.  The police were also in contact with the Council’s Licensing Service, with the aim of having the campaign details on a small card to be available in Hackney Carriage taxis and possibly Uber taxis.  The posters had also been widely distributed to pubs, nightclubs and cinemas in the region.  As part of the campaign, there had also been a review of third-party reporting centres, with the aim of simplifying the process to make it easier for people to report incidents of hate crime.  This had included the launch of several new reporting centres, together with the development of a training package for use by police officers in schools.  Chief Inspector Proffitt stated that although there had been an increase in reports of hate crime, from April to June 2017, in Sheffield, to 250, the police were not too concerned, as they took some assurance that, as a result of the recent campaign, and other publicity in this regard, more people were now reporting incidents.

 

 

6.5

Councillor Magid Magid reported on the work of the Equalities Hub Network in connection with hate crime, which included working with the Task Group, specifically arranging two joint sessions to exchange/share information. 

 

 

6.6

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

 

 

 

·                Funding in respect of future work in connection with hate crime was obtained through the Community Safety Partnership. 

 

 

 

·                Training on all aspects of hate crime was viewed as a very important part of the overall process, and such training had extended to the City Centre Ambassadors.

 

 

 

·                The Performance Planning and Resources Group (PPRG) was responsible for overseeing performance on hate crime, on behalf of the Community Safety Partnership and, as part of the work carried out by the Scrutiny Group, it had been identified that the City Centre Ambassadors were likely to witness incidents of hate crime. A briefing for the Ambassadors, together with a reporting mechanism, had been set up, and all incidents reported would be monitored, alongside other data on hate crime, by the PPRG.

 

 

 

·                Housing and Neighbourhood Services had rolled out the Housing+ approach from 1st October, 2016, where all Council tenants were able to have a dedicated Housing+ officer, and it was also believed that this contributed to better information on, and reporting of, hate crimes.

 

 

 

·                It was considered that the design of the Campaign posters/stickers made it very clear for people to understand its aims and objectives.  There had been issues in terms of some organisations agreeing to have posters/stickers in their windows, and there was an element of reliance on such organisations to support the campaign in this way.  Literature on the Campaign was available in a number of different languages. 

 

 

 

·                The Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel was chaired independently by Stop Hate UK, and the police had not taken any steps to increasing the numbers of representatives on this Panel as it was not responsible for managing the Panel.  It was accepted that there was a need to get more people involved in the work of the Panel, and consideration had been given to working with the Equalities Hub Network in this regard. 

 

 

 

·                The police were currently liaising with the Council’s Licensing Service in connection with arranging for calling cards to be placed in all Hackney Carriage taxis, and Uber had also expressed an interest in its drivers having such cards in their vehicles. 

 

 

 

·                The police accepted that there was a fine line between freedom of speech and hate speech and, in terms of what action it would take, would assess each case on its own merits.  There were a number of court cases that referenced the differences, which the police used, but it was still a very challenging job in terms of making a judgement.  If the police found someone preaching from scriptures, they would record the incident and determine whether it was a hate crime or a criminal offence in terms of further action to be taken. 

 

 

 

·                The Hate Crime Co-ordinator would be a police officer, whose post would be funded by the Local Authority, and who would be based in Local Authority offices. 

 

 

 

·                It was intended that the statistics regarding the independent hate crime reporting telephone line, delivered by Stop Hate UK, would be reported on a regular basis.

 

 

 

·                The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Community Safety (Councillor Jayne Dunn) had written to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) requesting changes to the South Yorkshire Police recording systems to enable better interrogation of the data and improve understanding of who is affected by hate crime in South Yorkshire. Councillor Dunn and Maxine Stavrianakos had then met with the PCC and Assistant Chief Constable, Tim Forbes, on 28th June, 2017, who had agreed to look into what changes could be made and feed back.

 

 

 

·                In terms of how South Yorkshire Police and Stop Hate UK complimented each other, Stop Hate UK ran the independent Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel, and provided an independent reporting line, from which they could pass on crimes to the police. This provided an alternative route to report crimes, in the same way that Crime Stoppers does.

 

 

 

·                The minutes of the meetings of the Sheffield Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership could be circulated to members of this Committee.

 

 

 

·                A Sheffield Hate Crime Action Plan had been produced. Further work would be undertaken on the actions in this Plan once the joint post of Hate Crime Co-ordinator had been recruited to. The Plan would contain actions for the Local Authority, the police and partners.

 

 

 

·                Details of all hate crimes reported were logged, with the information then being broken down in terms of the precise nature of the incident. 

 

 

 

·                Police representatives had met with First Mainline to discuss the possibility of staff of that Company receiving specific training regarding hate crime.  Although nothing had been formalised at this stage, there was a willingness on the part of First Mainline to work with the police on this issue, and it was planned that police officers would pursue this over the next 12 months.  Reference was also made to police on-line training for its staff, and there would also be a training package for other organisations, which would include the Council’s City Centre Ambassadors.

 

 

 

·                Although the police had not been made aware of specific incidents in terms of hate crime within shops and supermarkets, they would be happy to look into this.

 

 

 

·                The staff working on the hate crime reporting telephone line, being delivered by Stop Hate UK, would be able to speak a number of different languages, and in those cases where a specific language was not spoken, the callers would be directed to relevant websites.

 

 

 

·                In terms of follow-up actions following far-right demonstrations, it was envisaged that the Neighbourhood Community Policing Teams, which were to be re-introduced in September 2017, would get involved, by providing help, assistance and guidance to any members of the public affected by such actions.

 

 

 

·                Work was continually taking place to look at how to make it easier for people to report hate crime, including looking at identifying further organisations who could become third party reporting centres.  It was also hoped that, following the re-introduction of the Neighbourhood Community Policing Teams, this would offer a further opportunity for people to report crimes.  Members of the public could also report such crimes to Crimestoppers. 

 

 

 

·                Approximately £10,000 from the Council’s Community Safety Parnership budget was allocated towards dealing with hate crime.  In addition to this, the Sheffield Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership, with a contribution from the Local Authority and the Police and Crime Commissioner, had funded the post of Hate Crime Co-ordinator.  A number of other partner organisations, including Health, the Probation Service and the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service contributed in other ways.

 

 

 

·                The majority of hate-related incidents were reported to the police.  They were then referred to the Sheffield Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership, who would look into the details in respect of each incident, in order to determine how to address the issues.

 

 

 

·                Details of where incidents had taken place would be logged as part of the reporting process, therefore resources, such as additional training, could be targeted to those areas where there was a high number of incidents.

 

 

 

·                Whilst there were no details in terms of action and planned events for the Hate Crime Awareness Week, which would run from 14th to 21st October 2017, discussions would commence shortly in terms of such plans. 

 

 

 

·                All hate-related incidents were referred to Victim Support as a matter of routine.

 

 

6.7

RESOLVED: That this Committee:-

 

 

 

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the information now reported by the partner agencies;

 

 

 

(b)       (i) thanks Maxine Stavrianakos, Councillor Magid Magid and Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Ian Proffitt for attending the meeting and reporting on the work undertaken by their respective organisations in connection with prevention of hate crime and (ii) requests that they attend a future meeting of the Committee to report on progress on the Sheffield Hate Crime Action Plan; and

 

 

 

(c)        requests Detective Chief Inspector Ian Proffitt to provide a future meeting of the Committee with an update on the work of the Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel.

 

Supporting documents: