This page will tell you more about hate crime and the many ways you can report it.

Report Hate Crime

PFD is working in partnership with Dorset Police, which provides a victim-focused response to any incidents reported. Tackling hate crime is our priority, and we continue to work with our communities to stamp it out.

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What is hate crime?

Hate crime can take many forms, including verbal abuse, physical assault, domestic abuse, harassment and damage to property. Such crime is targeted at a person because of prejudice towards their race, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Hatred not only has the potential to cause serious physical and emotional harm, it also damages communities and undermines the diversity and cohesion we should instead be celebrating.

Despite this, hate crime is widely under-reported across Dorset and beyond.

More about Hate Crime

Report it!

If you think you may have experienced or witnessed hate crime there are a couple of ways to report it:

- In an emergency, dial 999
- If it’s not an emergency but you are afraid the situation may escalate, dial 101
- For anonymous reporting, contact Crimestoppers
- Alternatively, report the incident online to Dorset Police using the ‘Do it online’ function, or by downloading the ‘Hate Crime2’ app

If you want more information on how to stay safe and what to do if you have been a victim of a hate crime: 

- Get in touch with Victim Support for free confidential support
- Visit the True Vision website (report-it.org.uk) to find out more about reporting hate crime

Why should you report a hate crime?

Hate crime is rarely a one-off incident. With other types of crimes, there is usually a small chance of you being a repeat victim. However, victims of hate crime are more likely to suffer repeated, constant or frequent abuse from the same person or group.

Hate crime can have a devastating effect on you, such as:

- emotional damage
- long-term trauma
- anxiety and living in fear
- inability to sleep.

By reporting hate crime, you may help prevent others from becoming a victim of it. It also helps Prejudice Free Dorset understand the extent and impact of hate crime so we can better respond to it.

If your first language is not English and you require a translator:

Dorset Police uses Language Line interpreters so that their operators can connect to a qualified interpreter within seconds any time of day, from any location, using any type of telephone. Please dial 999 for an emergency or 101 for non-emergency reporting.

Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired?

There are other ways to report hate crime. SMS services are only for people who cannot use voice phones, and are not an extra service  for contacting the emergency services about other things.

Emergency

You will need to register your mobile phone before using the emergency SMS service to report a hate crime.

Find out more about the emergency SMS service here.

Non-emergency

To use the non-emergency SMS service to report a hate crime, just send a text message to 67101.