EVERY week across West Mercia (Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire), people are attacked or harassed – physically and/or verbally – because they are perceived to be different.
This unjustified prejudice may be because of their religion, sexuality, colour of their skin, gender identity, disability or a combination of several.
West Mercia Police has dedicated hate crime officers in each local policing area who support victims of hate crime and educate businesses, local community groups, sports venues and schools to better understand hate crime and the effect on the victim and our community as a whole.
In Worcestershire, PC Dane Roleston-Lowe is responsible for reported hate crimes as well as working with our partners to better support victims of hate crime and educate people as to why and what, a hate crime is.
During a standard week, PC Roleston-Lowe spends every day investigating hate crimes or engaging with people to prevent hate crimes.
In this special feature – recorded in just one week in late November – we look at the work undertaken by PC Roleston-Lowe throughout our communities,
A week in the life of a hate crime officer
At the start of the week he attended the European Community Centre in Worcester and introduced himself to the management and distributed hate crime leaflets in a variety of languages.
Next up he attended a victim support service with Amjad Rashid, a support worker, called ‘TellMAMA’. The pair met a group of young people connected to the Prince’s Trust who were carrying out some decorating of the centre, so PC Roleston-Lowe grabbed a roller and helped out!
PC Roleston-Lowe and Amjad went to a shift briefing at Worcester Police Station to brief and update other officers about hate crime and Amjad explained his role within the victim support structure.
PC Roleston-Lowe and Amjad both visited a new local cafe and bakery in Lowesmoor and introduced themselves to the owner, chatting about the work they do, the support they offer and welcoming them to the community.
Meeting people from all faiths is a vital piece of work Hate Crime Officers undertake to better understand any issues being raised by a particular community and in this week PC Roleston-Lowe visited both Hope Church and a local mosque in Worcester City.
As part of this very busy week, PC Roleston-Lowe, Amjad and Adrian Symmonds also from West Mercia Police visited Worcester University to speak at a Hate Crime Workshop for ‘No Hate November’. After the presentation Amjad and PC Roleston-Lowe also took part in a rowing event for charity on one of the rowing machines doing 1000 meters each. They both managed to complete this and even PC Roleston-Lowe did while in uniform!
PC Dane Roleston-Lowe said: “It is such a vital role and I am so very proud to be able to come to work each day with the aim to make a difference to peoples’ lives and in particular people who are victims of incidents or crimes motivated by hatred or prejudice, just because they are different.
“I know I am one person but if I can make a positive difference to an individual or a group of individuals then it makes all the hard work worthwhile.
“I want every person to be able to genuinely feel they can be themselves without any negative association or hatred by another person and to feel safe and secure.
“This is my 25th year in policing and I am so passionate about making a difference and raising awareness to improves lives and communities and my motivation only becomes stronger day by day.”
PC Roleston-Lowe particularly enjoys engaging with the community and always seeks to identify new opportunities and links with other organisations.
“I work closely with partner agencies and colleagues in other areas of policing.
“For me it is not all about enforcement and criminalisation, it is about raising awareness, increasing knowledge and to pursue change so that these range of incidents are reported / challenged and investigated.
“All options need to be considered carefully, including out of court disposal methods.
“Victim’s wishes are paramount and in accordance with the victims wishes, where suitable, diversionary methods are used for example restorative justice.
“Providing victims with help and support is really important and I always try to seek victim’s permission to be referred to the West Mercia Victim Advice Line (VAL) as they can really help and support victims to feel supported during and after any Police involvement.”
There are occasions where PC Roleston-Lowe will lead and investigate a hate crime due to its severity or potential impact of the communities.
The Hate Crime Team have been involved in three separate investigations as a result of racial hatred and racial comments on social media platforms as a result of the EURO 2020 finals whereby a number of England football players were racially abused.
This will not be tolerated and as a Police service we will be pro-active and take all necessary action.
PC Roleston-Lowe said: “Each of our teams has a role to play to build relationships with a wide range of communities and groups who may be vulnerable to particular kinds of targeted crime, such as hate crime.
“Remember, a hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, perceives it to be based on someone’s prejudice or hatred towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, individual characteristics or because they are transgender.
“I want to encourage anyone who believes they have been victimised or are the victim of a hate incident or crime or if they witness a hate related incident to please come forward.
“I would ask you to empower and encourage others to report incident to police as hate crime is everyone’s problem and we need to work together to make positive change.”
Victims and witnesses can report incidents to police without fear via the non-emergency number 101 or via the West Mercia Police website at www.westmercia.police.uk , or 999 if a crime is ongoing.
Victims can be reassured they will be taken seriously and treated with sensitivity.
However, if people do not feel comfortable speaking directly to police, hate crime can also be reported online through the True Vision website at www.report-it.org.uk , to which all police forces in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are signed up.
The online report will then be forwarded to the relevant local police force for action.
Alternatively information can be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
