More Support For Police Victims Of Hate Crime

Police victims of racist hate crime need proper support, but the courts also need to take such incidents seriously, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent was speaking as Oscar Kilo released new hate crime response guidance for Op Hampshire, the strategy across UK policing designed to support police officers and staff who are assaulted or suffer hate crimes on duty.

The supplementary guidance recognises the challenges officers face through hate crime, where it says often a more nuanced and tailored response should be considered. It includes advice that supervisors should be proactive and conduct an early wellbeing assessment for all incidents; and that this assessment should explicitly consider traumas related to hate abuse, including cumulative harm.
The guidance also says: “Stand together; take the approach that any attack or abuse against a colleague is an assault on us all. It is not and should never be acceptable.”

Steve Kent said: “Racially aggravated assaults on police officers need to be dealt with, and I’m glad that our force has a robust stance on it. Our force does a good job with Op Hampshire in terms of making sure that things are done and cases are put before the courts.

“But sometimes the courts aren’t necessarily seeing it through in terms of the severity of sentences. So we do need more buy-in from the criminal justice system too.”

Read the full Oscar Kilo guidance at: www.oscarkilo.org.uk/op-hampshire-hate-crime-response-guidance