Education, early intervention and building resilient communities is the cornerstone of a new Hate Crime Strategy.
Developed by the Cleveland Strategic Hate Crime Partnership, the aim of the 10-year strategy is “for all adults and children in Cleveland to be able to live free from hatred and hostility motivated by prejudice.”
The key outcomes are that:
- People understand what hate crime is, how to report it and how to access support
- Hateful attitudes and behaviours are challenged
- Victims of hate crime and hate incidents have access to appropriate support
- Reports of hate crime are robustly investigated
- Hate crime perpetrators receive an appropriate sanction
Outcomes will be achieved through raising awareness of the meaning of hate crime and the ways to report it, encouraging mutual respect between communities and ensuring effective enforcement action is carried out.
Success of the strategy will be measured by:
- Increasing the number of reports
- Reducing repeat victims
- Reducing repeat perpetrators
- Increasing positive criminal justice outcomes, including restorative justice
- Increasing victim satisfaction
The partnership has already launched a hate crime charter and multi-media campaign to stamp out hate, encourage victims to report incidents and make sure they get the right help and support to recover.
Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey, who chairs the partnership said: “It’s important that everyone, who lives, works and visits Cleveland, feels free from fear and prejudice.
“Communities are stronger together so it’s important that everyone in Cleveland feels included and able to play the fullest part in our community.”
One of the ways in which the partnership aims to challenge prejudice, bigotry and hate, is by increasing the use of restorative justice (RJ).
RJ gives victims a voice, a chance to communicate with their offenders and to explain the true impact of the crime.
It also gives offenders a personal insight into the lives of their victims- beyond the narrow stereotypes, which lead to the prejudice and the hate, which fuels incidents.
Dave Mead, Victim Services Manager at Safer Communities, (which runs Victim Care and Support Service and Restorative Cleveland), said: “Restorative Justice is an important method of supporting and empowering victims of hate crime.
“Many of those targeted because of their race or religion, receive the abuse based upon their professions, this includes police officers, health care professionals, taxi drivers and security staff.
“We want perpetrators to understand the consequences of their actions, not only upon the victim, but also their family and the wider community.
“Hate crime is never acceptable and must be challenged at every touch point, the victims deserve our compassion and understanding.
“I would invite anyone who is facing hate crime and intimidation to reach out to us for support, please ring us on 0303 040 1099.”
According to the Home Office, hate crime in Cleveland rose significantly last year.
The number of hate crime offences in the year to the end of March 2024 was 1,508. That compares to 1,771 in March 2025 – a 17.4 per cent increase.
The number of incidents, in which hate was motivating factor, was 1,568 during year ending March 2024. That figure rose to 1,803 in year ending March 2025 – a rise of 14.9 per cent.
Race is by far the biggest factor in recorded hate crime. There were 1,130 racially-motivated incidents in year ending March 2024. That figure rose to 1,445 last year – a 27.87 per cent increase.
Other motivating factors are sexual orientation, disability, transgender identity and religion.
Cleveland Hate Crime Strategy