Charity launches online portal to monitor racism

Anti Racist Cumbria hopes the portal will reveal how prevalent racism is in the county

A charity has launched a portal for people to report their experiences of racism so it can monitor incidents across a county.

Anti Racist Cumbria said it believed racism was not always reported to police and employers and when it was, it was not always dealt with adequately.

Niall McNulty, community development director for the charity, said he hoped the portal would ensure that "racism is recognised" across Cumbria and that the data collected could help address it.

Cumbria Police said it recognised "some people may be reluctant" to report racist incidents but it was important they did so the force had "an understanding of what is occurring in the community".

Mr McNulty said: "Racism is such a broad brushstroke and overt racism is something that everyone recognises and sometimes they report it to the police through hate crime.

"There are though, other forms of racism that are more subtle and equally as damaging that go unnoticed, unspoken and unreported.

"We needed a way to be able to find out what's happening across Cumbria and this portal is what we've come up with."

'Extremely serious'

He also said that if there were "very few reports" this information would also be shared.

When people use the portal they will not be asked provide too much detail so as not to "retraumatise" them, Mr McNulty added.

They will be asked where it happened, their experience and if it was reported police.

The portal is confidential and wellbeing support is also available.

"Cumbria Police takes hate crime and hate incidents extremely seriously and investigates reports of such offending thoroughly and professionally," a spokesperson said.

They added that the force had a "higher positive outcome rate for hate crime than for all crime".