Wiltshire hate crime convictions higher than national level
This week is National Hate Crime Awareness Week
Across the UK, 67% of hate crime cases end with a conviction, but in Wiltshire that number is currently higher.
In August of this year, 80% of cases concluded with a guilty verdict, while in September that number was 75%.
This week (14th-20th October) is National Hate Crime Awareness Week and Wiltshire Police have told us that hate crimes will be dealt with ‘strongly’.
Chief Inspector Gill Hughes is Hate Crime Lead at the Force and told us a hate crime is an attack on somebody based on their race, nationality, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, gender identity or disability.
She told us that there could be some confusion in the public as to what constitutes a hate crime.
“That is one of our main concerns, that there is a lack of understanding from both the victim’s side of things and also from the suspect’s side of things, whether they just don’t understand the implications and also about reporting it.”
CI Hughes said confidence in the police in our communities is low at the moment and that they needed to reassure the public that hate crimes would be dealt with strongly.
Encouraging victims to come forward
CI Hughes wants to encourage people who have suffered a hate crime to come forward.
To do this, the force is working with external agencies to ensure they understand what is going on within communities.
“When we have those victims come forward, we have hate crime advisors,” she told Greatest Hits Radio.
Hate Crime Advisors follow up on a case brought to the police after the initial contact to.
“We want to raise awareness and the impact and the understand of how difficult hate crimes are for people, so we just encourage that reporting and that victims will be listened to.
It’s hoped that the increased conviction rates will lead to more people coming forward.
A victim's story
One victim of a hate crime was in fact a Salisbury Police officer.
Police Constable Hassan Seggari, who is from Morocco, was attacked by a man his colleagues had arrested.
When the arrested man discovered PC Seggari is Moroccan, he asked "What have you done for this country to be here?" before saying he shoot PC Seggari if he had a gun.
For PC Seggari, the incident is something that remains with him to this day, but he says we have to combat people who believe it is ok to abuse people.
"We have to tackle it and we can't tackle it without people reporting offenses," he said.
Wiltshire Police are sharing more stories throughout the week in a bid to ensure more people come forward and share their stories too.