Annex A
Summary of Hate Crime Initiatives
RACIAL INCIDENTS
Corporate Initiatives:
— The drafting of a new Police Service
Hate Crime Policy Directive.
— Police Service Minority Liaison Officers
within each District Command Unit. These officers have a specific
responsibility to support and advise victims of racial incidents
and to engage with local minority groups. The names and contact
numbers of these officers have been widely distributed to representative
groups and placed on the PSNI website.
— Religious Diversity and Refugee/Asylum
Training delivered to Minority Liaison Officers by Northern Ireland
Inter-Faith Forum.
— Ongoing identification and engagement
with Minority Ethnic Groups within Districts following the issue
of 2001 Northern Ireland census figures.
— Establishment of the Multi-Cultural
Independent Advisory Group (June 2003). This group consists of
twelve members from Minority Ethnic backgrounds who will assist
and advise police in respect of policy and procedure and provides
a forum for the members to raise issues with police. Meets quarterly.
— The development, in partnership with
the Community Safety Unit (Nb), of an inter-agency reporting structure
for racially motivated incidents/crimes through a multi-agency
working group comprising representatives from statutory, voluntary
and community sector bodies.
— The delivery of Hate Crime training
to Detectives on racially motivated crimes/incidents by Community
Safety Branch and members of Minority Ethnic groups.
— Police Service represented on the
Northern Ireland Race Forum and Language, Racial Incidents and
Travellers sub groups.
— Police Service Guide to Culture and
Diversity issued to every police officer and member of support
service (October 2004) focusing on the main communities, faiths
and Minority Ethnic groups within Northern Ireland.
— PSNI is developing an Ethnic Police
Officers' Association.
— October 2002—New Directions
Human Rights Conference and Racial Equality Focus on Policing
with Ethnic Minority Communities. Conference report available
on Police website.
— Police Service, in partnership with
Community Safety Unit (Nb), Victim Support and NIHE are developing
the availability of a practical measures package for victims of
racial incidents
— Minority Liaison Officer's Seminars
attended by representatives of Minority Ethnic Groups and the
Home Office.
— Police Service development of racially
motivated incident database on the Integrated Crime Information
System to enable police to provide more accurate information and
analyse same.
— Community Safety Branch is working
with Crimestoppers to provide victims of racial incidents with
an alternative method of reporting where they do not wish to identify
themselves.
— Ongoing development of alternative
methods of incident reporting, including third party and internet.
— Provision of face-to-face and telephone
interpretation and translation services
— Police Service information provided
to Immigration Service Office at Belfast International Airport
for information of those registering for Asylum.
LOCAL DISTRICT
INITIATIVES
Newtownabbey:
— Development of a local Service Level
Agreement with the International Office at Ulster University Jordanstown.
Presentation is given each September to the first year Foreign
Students. International Office has been established as a point
of contact and referral for any students subjected to racial incidents
who are reluctant to directly contact police.
— Local protocols established with
Nursing Administration Manager at Whiteabbey Hospital. MLO details
available and details of any incidents will be forwarded to police.
Contact details for local MLO prominently displayed within the
office.
— Minority Ethnic groups are displaced
throughout the District without one point of contact. Efforts
are being made to encourage ethnic representation in the four
"sector forums".
Foyle:
— Police are represented on the Sai
Pak Multi Agency Advisory Group along with WELB, Derry City Council,
and Foyle Trust. A meeting was held at Sai Pak premises on 30
June 2004 between the Community Relations Officer at Sai Pak and
the Community Safety Sergeant to plan future events involving
police.
— Ongoing contact with representatives
from the local Hindu Community.
— Interagency working on Traveller
issues in the North West. PSNI, WHSSB, DCC, Foyle Trust, NIHE,
Western Health Action Zone and Derry Travellers' Support Group
are represented.
— Derry Travellers' Support Group facilitated
a one-day training event for statutory agencies on 20.05.04. The
training included presentations and workshops about Race and Equality
legislation, attitudes and discrimination. A PSNI representative
attended the training.
— A presentation regarding the role
of the Minority Liaison Officer has been arranged for new international
students at University of Ulster (Magee Campus).
South Belfast:
— Regular contact maintained with Ethnic
Minority Groups and individuals within the South Belfast area.
— Additional Minority Liaison Officers
appointed within each sector area.
— South Belfast Round Table on Racism.
— Local Minority Ethnic police forum.
— South Belfast Vulnerable Persons
Strategy—MLOs investigate all hate crime incidents in South
Belfast
— Identifiable contacts for members
of Ethnic Minority community.
— Developing concept of safe havens
for overseas students in South Belfast.
— South Belfast in partnership with
Victim Support have arranged to have a number of Victim Support
volunteers trained to engage with victims of racial incidents
and assist them to report to police.
Down:
— Establishment of local working arrangements
with local Council and Housing Executive to support families having
to move home as a result of racial incidents.
— Ongoing identification of local Minority
Ethnic groups with a view of having a cultural awareness day in
partnership with local council.
Dungannon and South Tyrone:
— Police are represented on the Service
Providers Migrant Workers Forum which is facilitated by STEP (South
Tyrone Empowerment Programme).
— Partnership initiative still to design
an easily understood visual sign poster with captions in English
plus probably up to five of the most spoken "other"
languages within the Dungannon DCU, to address issues such as
drink driving, registration of vehicles, bin collection/recycling,
public bylaws etc.
— When a large number of migrant workers
arrived in the area a local Good Practice Guide was issued to
police to provide advice on dealing with these people.
Craigavon:
— Multi-Agency Group established to
identify and meet the information needs of migrant workers living
in the Craigavon Area. Group chaired by police.
— Regular meetings with representatives
of the local Muslim community
— Regular meetings between local sector
police and the Vietnamese community.
— Detailed ongoing analysis and circulation
of areas where minority groups live and work.
East Belfast:
— Local Minority Ethnic forum meets
bi-annually at Red Panda, Odyssey. This forum is attended by all
staff (60) who live and walk to the Odyssey from Templemore Ave.
— Local monitoring of Chinese employees
movements by CCTV on a daily basis.
— Local liaison with Anti Racism network
and a training event is being organised for Community by the network.
Police will be involved in the delivery of this training.
Cookstown:
— Local student seminars focusing on
Racism (commencing November).
— Regular contact with Cookstown's
local Chinese Welfare Organisation.
— Police are involved in the local
Migrant Workers Forum, which is multi-agency and aims to assist
migrant workers access local services and integrate into the community.
There is a bi-weekly "surgery" where information on
local police is available.
— Police work closely with employers
of foreign nationals and when new workers come in the police meet
with them and provide advice and information.
Newry and Mourne:
— Police, in partnership with Norbrook
Laboratories, met with migrant workers and received information
from the local Crime Prevention and Minority Liaison Officers.
— Consulting with St Vincent de Paul
and local solicitor in relation to delivering information seminars
on interpretation services.
— Foreign Nationals registering provided
with Hate Crime leaflets by Registering Officer.
Ballymena:
— Police involvement in the Ballymena
Inter Ethnic Forum which is made up of various Minority Ethnic
Groups and provides an opportunity for police to regularly engage
with members and provide an update on racial crime.
— Police involvement in Ballymena Inter
Agency Support Group aimed at providing help and support to Minority
Ethnic Groups.
— Police liaise with local employers
who provide details of names, nationality and addresses of employees
to enable police to patrol vulnerable areas.
— Children from Minority Ethnic Groups
are encouraged to integrate into local youth groups.
Carrickfergus:
— All Hate related Incident Report
Forms are attached to a monitoring pro-forma.
Castlereagh:
— Police meet with Filipino nurses
and staff at the Ulster Hospital in partnership with UNISON. A
number of staff at the hospital have been the victim of racial
incidents.
— As part of the pilot "Smartwater"
scheme in the DCU. the Cairnshill area selected had a number of
Chinese residents. Smartwater instructions were made available
to these families in Chinese.
— A racial incident memo was distributed
to all operational officers to provide guidance on identifying
hate related incidents and appropriate action.
HOMOPHOBIC INCIDENTS
Corporate Initiatives:
— The Police Service Of Northern Ireland
have Minority Liaison Officers within each District Command Unit
and the names and contact numbers have been widely distributed
to representative groups and placed on the PSNI website. Minority
Liaison Officers have a responsibility to support and advise victims
of homophobic incidents and to develop relationships between the
police.
— Awareness and Diversity training
is delivered to Minority Liaison Officers on an ongoing basis
by representatives of LGBT organisations in Northern Ireland.
— The development of an inter-agency
reporting structure for homophobic and racial incidents/crimes
through a multi-agency working group comprising representatives
from statutory, voluntary and community sector bodies.
— The delivery of Hate Crime training
to Detectives on Hate crime/incidents by Community Safety Branch
and members of minority groups.
— Police Service Guide to Culture and
Diversity issued October 2004.
— PSNI is developing a Gay Police Officers
Association.
— Minority Liaison Officer's Seminars.
— The development of a database of
homophobic incidents on the Integrated Crime Information System.
This will enable police to provide more accurate information and
analyse same.
— Police/Crimestoppers initiative to
encourage victims of homophobic incidents, who may not wish to
identify themselves, to report incidents and also to encourage
the public to provide information.
— A review is under way to examine
the present recording and monitoring processes for homophobic
incidents with a view to developing alternative methods of reporting
to encourage victims to come forward to police via a third party
or by telephone/internet.
LOCAL DISTRICT
INITIATIVES
South Belfast:
— The development of third party reporting
through three local LGBT groups. This further development of this
initiative is currently being looked at.
— South Belfast LGBT Forum meeting
quarterly. Includes police representatives from HQ, all Belfast
Districts, Lisburn, Castlereagh and representatives from the statutory
and voluntary groups.
North Belfast:
— Regular contact maintained with Rainbow,
a local gay and bisexual men's health organisation.
Foyle:
— Regular contact maintained with local
LGBT groups in relation to prevention and detection of homophobic
incidents in the Foyle area.
SECTARIAN, RELIGION
AND DISABILITY
The Police Service formally commenced recording
incidents perceived to be on the grounds of a person's religion,
political opinion or disability on 28 September 2004 in line with
the introduction of the Criminal Justice (No 2) Northern Ireland
Order 2004.
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