Rotherham cop highlights hate crimes to Talking Newspaper

HATE crime police officer Chris Nicholson has put his tolerance message on record - quite literally.
PC Chris Nicholson, right, and presenter Roy Beachill.PC Chris Nicholson, right, and presenter Roy Beachill.
PC Chris Nicholson, right, and presenter Roy Beachill.

Rotherham's hate crime coordinator talked about his work to Talking Newspapers which supports the blind and visually impaired. 

Mr Nicholson talked to Talking Newspaper host Roy Beachill to boost police engagement with users of the service.

The self-funded Talking Newspaper is a specialist radio station that produces 80-minute recordings of local news and events which are then made available through audio cassettes, CDs and USB memory sticks.

The officer spoke about raising awareness of hate crimes and encouraged reporting.

Mr Nicholson said: “Hate is a serious offence and is any crime or incident perceived by either a victim or witness to be motivated by hostility or prejudice because of someone’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

“To reinforce the severity and impact hate has, our dedicated Hate Hurts, Report It campaign was launched at the beginning of the year and since this launch, work has been done to develop relationships with different community groups, gather feedback, improve our responses, raise awareness, and encourage reporting of hate.

“Although this proactive action has encouraged reports of hate crime, further work is still needed to maintain this engagement with local communities and demonstrate our commitment to protecting victims. To work to achieve this, our dedicated hate crime campaign Hate Hurts, Report It has been relaunched.

“As part of the relaunch we will be working with different partners, such as the Talking Newspapers, to support and become involved in local initiatives to work to prevent hate, raise awareness, highlight the support available, and encourage reporting.”

Visit https://www.facebook.com/pg/RTN2008/about/?ref=page_internal for more information about Talking Newspapers.

Hate crimes can be reported to the police on 101 or 999 in an emergency, or through a third party reporting centre such as the True Vision website at http://www.report-it.org.uk/home.