Posters To Urge Victims To Report All Race CrimesCOMMUNITY leaders and senior police officers came together today to spread the message that racist crime will not be tolerated in Oldham.At the launch of a hard-hitting poster campaign, aimed at encouraging people to report racism, the message was clear: Don't Tolerate It - Report It. The poster, which will be displayed in public buildings and community centres throughout Oldham, lists the types of incidents which are classified as hate crimes and a list of numbers and addresses where they can be reported. Supt Keith Bentley, head of Chadderton sub-division, said that Oldham police division has recognised the importance of actively encouraging greater reporting since 1992. He added: "We have striven to address the under-reporting of racist crime and set up multi-agency reporting centres. "We now welcome this campaign, which will go further in informing people how they can report racist crime of any kind, including graffiti, verbal abuse, intimidation, damage to property violence and arson." He stressed that the police cannot solve the problem of racism alone, adding: "We are community police and need to work with the community to succeed in the fight against racism." Mahroof Rashid, director of Oldham Race Equality Partnership, said: "There have been known cases of under-reporting of racist crime in certain areas. "We hope these posters, and the subsequent leaflets and publicity, will encourage people not to tolerate racist crime and to report it to the police, council, Oldham Race Equality Partnership, Victim Support or one of the many other agencies." PC Bob Brierley, of the community affairs section of Oldham Police, has been working to improve the reporting of racist crime for the past 10 years. He said: "We have been criticised for having one of the highest number of reported racist incidents in the country but I see this as more of a positive thing. "It shows that people trust us enough to report these types of crimes and I hope this campaign goes further to improving the communication between victims and the police." The campaign, launched by the Oldham Against Crime Partnership, is to be extended into the new year when leaflets and information cards will be produced and translated into community languages. |
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