A POLICE commander has said figures showing an apparent decrease in the number of hate crimes reported to the force make him “nervous”, and perhaps indicates a lack of confidence in seeking support from the police on these incidents.

At a meeting of Colchester City Council’s crime and disorder committee, the district commander for the city, Chief Insp Colin Cox, referred to data presented to the authority in a report from the Safer Colchester Partnership, a body consisting of the council, police, probation, health and fire services working together to tackle identified problems in the region.

In Colchester during the year ending September 2023, there were 581 investigations into recorded hate crimes compared to 690 in the 12 months previous, with the majority of investigations relating to racially motivated incidents which made up 399 of these investigations.

Despite this being a reduction of almost 16 per cent compared with the previous year, Mr Cox said this did not necessarily indicate a positive statistic.

Gazette: Concerned - Chief Insp Colin Cox said that figures showing an apparent decrease in the number of hate crimes reported to the force make him “nervous”Concerned - Chief Insp Colin Cox said that figures showing an apparent decrease in the number of hate crimes reported to the force make him “nervous” (Image: Newsquest)

He said: “I’m nervous about the figures, and I’m nervous about seeing a reduction [in the number of reported incidents].

“A hate incident is almost one of those crimes you want to celebrate when you see the numbers going up, because it means people have the confidence to report it.

“The fact that number has gone down… I am nervous about that, as we have a hugely diverse community in Colchester.”

He said fear or lack of confidence in filing a crime report could be contributing to a reluctance to challenge others’ behaviour, but both witnesses and victims should place trust in the Colchester Policing Team (CPT) to tackle incidents effectively, and he “wants more victims to support police action”.

Call for workshops to tackle hate crime

Shrub End councillor Sam McCarthy said he had acted as an ambassador for the prevention of hate crime in his ward for a number of years, but he had not seen any workshops held in the area to educate the wider public on signs to look out for and ways to report incidents during most of that time.

He agreed with Mr Cox incidents of hate crime are largely “under-reported”, saying: “I think it is a case of people not being aware of how to report it, being scared to report it or just passing it off as many people are, sadly, used to it.

“I would love to see workshops rolled out in community centres, places or worship and schools across Colchester.”

LDR contacted Essex Police, the Colchester Policing Team and Councillor Sam McCarthy for comment.