Leicestershire Police have launched their National Hate Crime Awareness Week campaign.

A national campaign aimed at increasing understating of hate crimes, hate incidents and ways to report them launched on Saturday 14 October.

The campaign sets out to raise awareness of the work carried out by local authorities such as the police and councils (and supported by key partners and communities) on a daily basis to tackle local issues and encourage all forms of hate to be challenged.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week (NHCAW) has been marked since 2009 and was set up after the tenth anniversary of the nail bomb attacks in London in 1999.

Leicestershire Police support NHCAW every year. Examples of activity taking place during the week includes engagement events at shops, leisure centres, parks, libraries, train stations and sports grounds all over the force area. Beat surgeries and focus groups will also be taking place. 

A new 'Recognise and Report' leaflet has been designed and distributed to neighbourhood teams to share within their local communities. It has been translated into the following languages: Urdu, Ukrainian, Slovakian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Latvian, Hindi, Arabic, Gujarati and Punjabi.

Alison Newcombe and PC Michelle Skingsley are the forces Hate Crime Officers. Their role is to review hate crime reports and to support victims. They participate in a number of independent advisory groups, scrutiny panels and partnership boards for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Within force they deliver hate crime training for new recruits, serving officers and police staff. 

Inspector Marc Crisp said: "National Hate Crime Awareness Week is an opportune moment for Leicestershire Police to showcase the fantastic work we conduct on a daily basis and reinforce our zero tolerance for all forms of hate in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

"Our diverse communities can be deeply affected by the pervasive nature of hate crime and our support for the campaign, enables us to galvanise community confidence in the actions we take 24/7, 365 days of the year." 

Rupert Matthews, Police and Crime Commissioner, added: "I take a zero-tolerance view of hate crime of any type. But the police can only take action when they are made aware of the problem. Hate Crime Awareness Week provides the opportunity to encourage those who are subjected to acts of hatred to report it, so that action can, and will, be taken. I hasten to add that this is not a one-week wonder; hatred should be reported at all times and I urge people to do so."

Hate crimes can be reported to Leicestershire Police on 101 or in an emergency please call 999. They can also be reported to local councils or via websites such as True Vision: Report a hate crime - True Vision (report-it.org.uk)