Sandwell Council launches focus groups to tackle hate crime
Victims of hate crime are being asked to share their experiences as new figures show incidents of racial abuse have hit record levels.
Sandwell Council is holding a series of online focus groups next week between Tuesday, July 28, and Friday, July 31, where people can tell their stories.
Councillor Maria Crompton, Sandwell Council's deputy leader, said: “We want residents to let us know how the council and partner organisations can continue to tackle hate crime.
"We want to hear their experiences of hate crime and for them to tell us how we can better provide support to victims.”
The focus groups come as West Midlands Police reports that incidents of hate crime increased by 43 per cent last month with 921 crimes being recorded compared 531 last year.
People of Chinese descent have told police they are being “victimised” due to the Covid-19 crisis, with growing numbers of individuals being harassed and assaulted.
A report to the Strategic Police and Crime Board showed racially motivated hate crime accounted for the majority of incidents with 1,303 incidents recorded.
Homophobic incidents were second highest with 189 offences while Muslims were the majority of victims involving hate towards religious groups.
Sandwell has said hate crime can take place anywhere and to anyone, whether face-to-face, on the phone, online or a verbal or physical confrontation.
Victims can been attacked because who they are, what they look like, their beliefs or their sexual orientation.
People can join the focus groups by emailing community_safetyteam@sandwell.gov.uk or visiting www.sandwell.gov.uk/hatecrimefocusgroups.
