Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
How many incidents of hate crime were recorded in the city of Sunderland each year from 2011/12 to 2017/18, where race was a motivating factor?
In Response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
There are a number factors to consider when comparing current and historic figures. The way we record crime is now different and this accounts for a percentage of the increases we have seen across all crime types, hate crime is no different. It is also important to acknowledge that people are more confident in coming forward to report hate crime. We have invested heavily in the work we do with community groups to educate the public around hate crime and the various ways to report it. This has seen improved trust and confidence with the public in reporting this type of crime.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would expect that you to take into consideration the factors highlighted above so as not to mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
With the above noted I can respond as follows.
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted within Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
The central database was searched for all incidents that occurred in Sunderland and that had a racial flag associated with it.
The results of those searches is as below.
|
Year |
Count |
|
2011/12 |
147 |
|
2012/13 |
185 |
|
2013/14 |
135 |
|
2014/15 |
135 |
|
2015/16 |
156 |
|
2016/17 |
270 |
|
2017/18 |
298 |
|
2018/19 |
139 |
|
Total |
1465 |
