or, How to deal with the bureaucracy of reporting a hate-crime as efficiently as possible
I’ve been out just over a year, and in that time I’ve been hate-crimed three times. One time I never even saw who did it, but twice I’ve done ‘the right thing’ and reported it. I believe reporting to the police is important even if you don’t want to bother with court just to make sure it is included in the statistics. Obviously I’m quite privileged to be able to do this comfortably being white and in a middle-class job, only do what you feel comfortable doing.
Both times I’ve reported them to the Met they have, to put it lightly, have fumbled the bag. This, in an era of a dysfunctional police force (for better or for worse), is a list of steps to try and avoid that happening.
During and immediately after the crime
- Film/photograph if you feel safe to do so
Immediately after the crime
- Keep any physical evidence (e.g the tissue used to wipe spit off your face)
- If on a bus, public transport, or anywhere public where there’s CCTV and obviously a member of staff you feel safe to talk to let someone know a crime has taken place and they need to keep the footage for the police.
- As an example TfL buses only keep footage for 10 days unless they’re told otherwise, and will only give it to the police, not you directly.
- Take notes of things like times, bus numbers, number plates, locations, and write down what actually happened to make reporting and writing the statement easier.
- Take photos of the location and any CCTV cameras that look at where the incident took place, even if you didn’t take any photos/video during the actual incident.
- In one of my cases the investigating officer went looking for CCTV cameras 50 metres down the road from where the incident took place and ‘didn’t find any’.
When you’re home
- When you’ve got a couple of hours where you’re able to be on/near a phone: Report the crime via 101 (can be a long hold time), or online (here)[https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/hate-crime/triage/v1/report-hate-crime/]. You can report with your preferred name and pronouns
- Keep your phone on loud and wait. The Met control room thingy will ring you back at whatever time of day or night. For me, both times it’s been within 40 or so minutes. In this call they ask if you want to give a statement in person or online/over the phone and book an appointment. If you live in a different borough to where the crime took place, it may be better to give the report online/over the phone. In both of my cases giving a statement in person meant that the case originated in my borough and had to be transferred to where the incident took place which led to delays and some lost information. Ask if the appointment is the right length. The Met policy is that hate crimes have to have a statement appointment that is two hours long. Their system doesn’t do this by default and so if you book a 1 hour appointment they will ring you a second time an hour later to rebook it to a two hour one.
- Ring the transport operator/business to make sure they keep the CCTV for the police. It’s important to do this again in case the member of staff didn’t pass the message on correctly.
- In London this may not be TfL, even if it is a TfL service. Bus operators have small logos on the side of the bus, and is written on the big blue sticker normally near the front downstairs. For the Overground it’s Arriva Rail London. Calling individual operators will probably help you get to the right person quicker, although I haven’t done this but was recommended to do it in the future by an officer.
Giving the Statement
- Ask them to turn their bodycam off. They should be doing it anyway but some officers are shit about it.
- They will guide you through the process and write the statement for you, but make sure you read the full statement before you sign it, and feel free to make edits if you feel they haven’t conveyed the incident correctly.
- Be blunt. Don’t beat around the bush about why you think you were attacked. It’s fucking horrible to say out loud but now is the time to say you look trans, and why you look trans, and that’s why you were targeted. The officer writing the statement isn’t going to do look at you and go ‘she’s trans (or any other reason why you’d be targeted for a hate-crime) that’s why’, you have to do spell it out yourself.
Next Steps
I don’t really know! This is as far as I’ve got! For my first the Met looked in the wrong place for CCTV and I ran out of energy to push it. For my second report a combination of people being on holiday and I suspect the officer who took the statement sitting on it for two weeks before sending it over to the right borough, has meant they’ve basically got nothing to go on other than my grainy video of the perpetrators.
To make a complaint you first need to complain directly to the police force handling the case by making it explicit that you want to submit a formal complaint, before the regulator, (IOPC)[https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints/submit-a-complaint], will look at it.
I’ve been lucky that both incidents have been fairly tame and I’m feeling fine after a bit of counselling. I hope that this guide is a help, this process is fucking exhausting and you need every bit of help you can get. It’s not a crime to lean on your support network when times are tough.
If this has helped you, or you think it might be useful, please share it around.