The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will be supporting this year’s National Hate Crime Awareness Week (NHCAW) with police officers and police staff taking part in awareness raising activities across London.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week takes place from 13-20 October and aims to highlight the issue of hate crime and encourage victims, and anyone who knows or suspects incidents of such crime, to report them to police or a third party organisation.

The MPS has seen a steady increase in the reporting of hate crime, particularly racist and religious hate crime – with spikes in reporting following the EU Referendum and recent terrorist attacks.

Hate crime is however still hugely under reported and no one should suffer in silence. These incidents may involve a physical attack, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse, insults or online abuse using social media. Types of hate crime can include, anti-Semitism, homophobia and Islamophobia, transphobia and disability hate crime.

Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer said: “London is such a diverse and tolerant city, but too many still feel marginalised or worse intimidated to go about their daily lives due to their race, faith, sexual orientation, gender or disability. This is why the MPS is proud to be supporting #NationalHCAW

“This is an opportunity for officers and staff to continue raising awareness of hate crime and encourage victims to come forward and speak to us, we will continue to work hard to gain the trust and confidence of all communities so victims feel they can come forward. Our message to all victims is, don’t suffer in silence.”

Officers will be visiting various locations across London including synagogues, mosques, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) venues to listen to concerns.

The number of people reporting hate crime continues to rise and it is believed this is due to a range of factors, which include a growing willingness of victims to report hate crime, an overall improved awareness of staff in identifying these offences; and work with partners to support victims. World events can also contribute to a rise in hate crime.

To this end, the MPS has specialist investigators who investigate hate crime offences as well as domestic abuse within London.

Follow your local policing team on their local MPS Twitter account or our Instagram account to find out what activities they are involved in during National Hate Crime Week.

If you or someone you know is suffering hate crime, or has suffered hate crime in the past, please contact police on 101. In an emergency dial 999.

Online reporting can be accessed via the ‘Reporting Crime’ webpage at: www.met.police.uk

If you can’t tell the police, report hate crime to a third party like Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or contact a bespoke race, faith, disability or LGBT organisations. Information on these can be found on the True Vision website: www.report-it.org.uk.

Third Party Reporting Centres are a safe neutral location within the community where people can report hate crime or hate crime incidents without having to contact the Police directly. Anybody can use this facility regardless of whether they are a victim, witness or just someone who is aware of information that needs to be reported.