As part of Hate Crime Awareness Week, we have joined a network of Third Party Reporting Centres in Hampshire.
These centres are committed to providing advice and guidance to those who have experienced any sort of hate crime or incident. They also are proactive in encouraging reporting of such incidents to the police via the .
While some centres are walk-in locations such as and , the University will provide signposting and support around reporting of hate crime and incidents for our students and staff through the various reporting tools we already have in place, such as the , the internal Harassment Advisor Network and PC Dave Fairbrother, our University Police Liaison Officer
Bernie Topham, Chief Operations Officer & Deputy Vice-Chancellor, signed the agreement on behalf of the University with Superintendent Steve Burridge, police district commander for ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú. They were also joined by representatives from other reporting centres including ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Disability Forum, British Red Cross and Citizens Advice Bureau.
The partnership also builds on our Civic University ambitions and will be looked after by the Equality & Diversity team.
What is a hate crime?
Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s:
- disability
- race or ethnicity
- religion or belief
- sexual orientation
- transgender identity
This can be committed against a person or property. A victim does not have to be a member of the group at which the hostility is targeted. In fact, anyone could be a victim of a hate crime.
The University is an inclusive working and learning environment where all its staff and students should expect to be treated with dignity and respect and it is important that if any of our university community experiences hate crime either within the campus or in the local community they report is to the University and to the Police.