Northamptonshire Police welcomes rise in reports of racist hate crime over last 10 years

A rise in racially-motivated hate crimes in Northamptonshire has been welcomed by police as it shows more people are reporting offences.

There has been a 92 per cent increase in offences with race as a motivating factor in the county from 2011/12 to 19/20, according to analysis by the JPIMedia Data Unit, which this newspaper is part of.

Last year, 876 reports were made to Northamptonshire Police - a jump of 36 per cent from the previous 12 months and equal to two a day.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said: “Racism in any form is absolutely intolerable and we have done a lot of work and awareness-raising campaigns over the past 10 years to encourage people who are racially abused to come forward and report it to us.

“We welcome the rise in figures as it means that this work has been successful and has empowered our communities to feel able to report incidents of racism to us.

“There’s no place in society for prejudice, and there’s no place for hatred.

"Incidents of hate crime should not, and will not, be tolerated in Northamptonshire, and we would encourage anyone who has been a victim of hate crime to come forward and report it to us.”

Compared to the rest of England, Northamptonshire has the 15th highest rate of hate crime reports - out of the 41 constabularies to provide the full figures.

The Home Office said improvements in police recording is one of the main reasons for the increase.

But independent race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust said there is an “overwhelming existence of systemic racism present in British society”.

Adam Almeida, research analyst at the Runnymede Trust, said the figures do not show the full picture as some people who experience racist abuse do not report it.

“What is occurring in Britain today mirrors what is happening globally, where incidences of racist crime correlate with the rise of the far-right, nationalism and white supremacy,” Mr Almeida said.

“We need to work to address the systemic root causes of racism that precipitates racist abuse at the individual level.”

The UK Government said it is working with various community groups, charities and schools to tackle racially and religiously motivated hate crime.

Minister for countering extremism Baroness Williams added that all forms of hate crime are 'completely unacceptable'.

“The government takes this issue very seriously which is why we published the hate crime action plan which has helped improve the police response to, and public awareness of, all forms of hate crime,” she said.

“We are working with community groups, charities and schools funding projects to tackle racially and religiously motivated hatred and we have also provided £3.2 million in funding to improve security at places of worship at risk from hate crime attacks for 2020/21.”