Meanwhile, the government has said that it will soon be consulting the public on whether specific hate crime legislation is required in Jersey.
Both announcements have followed questions from the JEP about whether current statistics concerning the number of racially motivated hate crimes in the Island (just 16 have been reported so far this year) reflect the true extent of the problem.
Detective Chief Inspector Alison Fossey, who leads on hate crime for the States police, said that she believes the figures do not reflect what is really happening in Jersey. ‘Racially motivated hate crimes are massively under-reported in the Island, which is why we will be launching a public awareness campaign early next year to help people understand how they can report this kind of behaviour,’ she said.
She went on to say that the initiative will be undertaken in partnership with a community action group that the police have set up with Jersey residents representing the five ‘strands’ of hate crime – racial, homophobic, transgender, faith and disability.
‘The States police now has a well-established community advisory group, which has representatives from the five strands and an independent chairperson. This is a consultative forum where we ensure the different communities in Jersey are represented and feel they have a means of communicating and raising concerns with the police. We plan to produce a new hate crime awareness-raising campaign in partnership with the community action group early in 2019.
‘We are aware that hate crimes are likely to be far more prevalent than official statistics suggest. Research from the UK suggests that proportionately, they are more likely to be directed against the person than non-hate crimes, and they tend to be experienced repeatedly. We would encourage victims in Jersey to come forward and if they feel unable to do that in person, then we are happy to accept third-party reports or online reports through our website. We will always investigate allegations of hate crime and will look to provide any support needed to victims of such crimes.’
The comments from the States police were made following this newspaper’s discussions with Polish-born Jersey resident Wioleta Barker, who has spoken out about everyday racism in Jersey, saying that more needs to be done to increase public awareness of the problem.
‘Someone from the States needs to do something,’ she said, ‘like the NSPCC does in schools, for example, with their campaign about reporting problems at home. That is brilliant, but what about racism too? Perhaps the States could do a similar thing for racism.’
The government has said that, while it has no communications campaign dedicated to tackling this issue, it will be consulting the public before the end of the year on whether specific hate-crime legislation is required in the Island.
As the law currently stands, there is no local equivalent to the UK’s Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, under which a person can be prosecuted for inciting racial or religious hatred.
