Rise in race and religious hate offences in Dorset
They have gone up by 13% since 2020
Dorset Police is warning new hate crime figures released today could be just the tip of the iceberg.
A total of 527 racially and religiously aggravated offences were recorded in 2021, up 13% from 467 in 2020.
It's thought reaction to England's defeat at the Euro football championships likely to have contributed to a national increase in offences by 15%.
The easing of Covid-19 restrictions is another factor named by forces as having led to the rise in offences, along with improved recording of hate crimes.
Dorset Police says the true number of offences in the county could be higher as victims often don't report them.
Offences have been on the rise since 2013
The number of offences has been on an upwards trend nationally since 2013, the first calendar year for which comparable data is available. But this is the biggest percentage jump since 2017, which saw a 16% rise in offences fuelled by reaction to terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
Independent charity Victim Support said the figures for 2021 were "seriously concerning" and fit a pattern for "spikes in hate crime linked to world events", while the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that "more still needs to be done to improve the quality of support for victims", including "effective hate crime training" for police forces.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said all forms of hate crime are "completely unacceptable - police will take, and do take, all reports seriously and we will do everything we can to investigate".
New high in numbers last year
The analysis has been compiled by the PA news agency from data published by the Home Office. It shows that of the 44 forces in England and Wales, 39 reported a rise in racially and religiously aggravated offences from 2020 to 2021, while 34 forces saw numbers last year reach a new high.
The offences - all of which are defined as hate crimes - include racially or religiously aggravated assault, harassment and criminal damage.
The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of these offences last year (15,394, up 2% from 15,156 in 2020) followed by West Midlands (8,019, up 57% from 5,117), Greater Manchester (6,431, up 36% from 4,724) and West Yorkshire (5,334, up 15% from 4,642).
West Midlands and Greater Manchester also saw two of the largest year-on-year percentage increases, along with Gloucestershire (up 45% from 384 to 556) and Cleveland (up 34% from 631 to 843).
Rise in spikes influenced by "high profile events" and Covid restrictions
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force saw "several spikes" in reported hate crimes last year that were influenced by "high profile events", including a "sharp rise following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions."
"We take reports of hate crime seriously and record all instances, whether they pass the threshold to be classified as a crime or not," the spokesperson added.
Superintendent Rick Jackson, Greater Manchester Police's hate crime lead, said the number of incidents during lockdown were "unprecedently low, so it was to be expected that there would be an increase" once restrictions were lifted, and that it was "encouraging that members of our communities have the trust and confidence in Greater Manchester Police to report hate crime".
The UK went back into lockdown at the beginning of last year due to the second wave of Covid-19 infections, with tight restrictions on travel, socialising and leisure activities.
Figures up and down throughout the year
PA's analysis shows that January to March 2021 saw 13,899 racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by forces in England and Wales, the lowest number for any quarter since the first three months of 2018.
But this was followed by a sharp jump to 21,239 offences in April to June, coinciding with the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions, before rising even higher in July-September (22,556) followed by slight drop in October-December (19,190).
The period July to September also coincided with the end of the Euro football championships, which saw England lose the final on July 11 in a penalty shootout with Italy.
Police made a number of arrests in the weeks following the final, after abusive posts on social media targeted England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, all of whom missed penalties.
One football fan who live-streamed himself on Facebook racially abusing the players was later handed a 10-week prison sentence, while another received a six-week sentence for racially abusing Rashford on Twitter.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Police, which saw one of the biggest percentage jumps in race and religious offences last year, confirmed the force "did see a rise in hate crime around the time of the Euro football tournament and the end of the football season" and has since stepped up its response, including appointing a hate crime co-ordinator to "give focus to investigation and training to ensure the best quality of service to communities".
Diana Fawcett, chief executive at Victim Support, said the figures reflect what the charity has been seeing in recent years, in particular an 11% increase in 2021 in its own recorded cases of hate crime, nearly three-quarters of which involved abuse based on race and religion.
"We consistently see spikes in hate crime linked to world events - for example, following the Euros finals last summer - so this could be one reason for the rise," she said.
"This trend is seriously concerning - no person or community should be targeted because of who they are."
Police forces set to make improvements
Superintendent Gemma Morris, of Dorset Police, said: “Dorset Police takes every report of crime seriously, especially hate crimes, which receive a heightened level of supervision and scrutiny.
“As a police force we are committed to supporting victims of crime and bringing offenders to justice. We work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure offenders who are prosecuted for a hate crime receive an increased sentence, in line with the legislation.
“From the Crime Survey for England and Wales we are conscious of hate crime being under-reported and we are focused on reducing the gap between the survey and reported crime by building trust and confidence with our communities and by ensuring that reporting methods are widely known.
“We will continue to engage with those communities in Dorset who are subjected to racially or religiously aggravated hate crime to ensure we understand any concerns and encourage reporting to the police.
“Dorset Police and third-party reporting centres have used awareness campaigns to make it clear that hate crimes will not be tolerated and to report matters to the police.
“The message is very clear, hate crimes are not tolerated in our communities. If you are a victim or witness of a hate crime or incident, please report it to Dorset Police online at dorset.police.uk/contact. Alternatively, if you wish to speak to someone, call 101. In an emergency always dial 999.”