Hate crime: West Yorkshire Police urged to improve report handling

Alison Lowe oversees crime and policing in West Yorkshire

Police need to "get better" at handling reports of hate crime, according to West Yorkshire's deputy mayor.

Alison Lowe, who has responsibility for policing and crime, said there was still a lack of consistency in the service people received from officers.

Police recorded more than 11,000 hate crimes last year. Separate data reveal a 40% rise in transphobic incidents.

West Yorkshire Police said the increase reflected their work in encouraging people to report hate crime.

The force said it had made 1,500 arrests and charged 800 people in the past 12 months.

However, Ms Lowe told BBC Radio Leeds the force had more work to do to ensure people felt able to report hate crime.

"I know that the system is not always working for all of us and that's the case for all protected characteristics and we need to get better at it," she said.

Figures released in June for West Yorkshire showed a 39.9% rise in transphobic incidents in the county.

'A lot of people don't report'

Christina, a trans woman who supports victims through the charity Trans Leeds, said she was not surprised by the figure.

"I feel that is significantly low compared to what the real numbers would be because a lot of people don't report," she said.

"We still get a lot of mis-gendering, a lot of dead-naming.

"It doesn't make someone feel safe when they are trying to report something that has happened to them."

A lack of diversity among officers was highlighted by Eyad Babakir, a trans man from Leeds who has experienced hate crime.

"Sometimes if a police officer has an experience themselves they are easier to deal with," he said.

"When both of them are straight white men then there's no hope."

Eyad Babakir believes a more diverse police force would help give LGBQT people more confidence

Ms Lowe accepted the response from officers was not always what it should be, but said training was taking place.

"It's about making sure it's consistently applied across police officers and staff," she said.

"When you've got 10,000 police officers and staff, some of which have been in post for a long time, that training has to become embedded."

West Yorkshire Police said it recorded 11,127 incidents of hate crime from November 2021 to November 2022 - a rise of 814 on the previous 12 months.

In a statement, the force said it would always encourage people to report incidents which would always be recorded.

"We have worked very closely with partners to campaign and actively encourage victims to come forward and make reports to the police, which can be evidenced by the increase in incidents reported in the last two years," it said.

The force said in some instances the victim would not wish to take further action or it was difficult to identify those responsible.

"This means that the number of arrests and charges for these offences are considerably lower than those reported," it added.