What to do if you think you are a victim of hate crime

Knowing what a hate crime is will help you protect yourself. If you are worried about your safety, talk to your support team or carer, or someone trust.

Watch this video to find out how to report a hate crime to the police.

Talking to the police

The police are there to help you and to protect you.

You can talk to the police by…

Calling 999

This is the phoneline to tell the police about something that is an emergency.

You should call this number if you, or somebody else, is in danger.

You should tell the person who answers that you need to talk to the police.

You should tell the person that answers that you have autism or a learning disability. This will help them communicate with you better. It will also help them to work out if what is happening might be a hate crime or incident.

Calling 101

This is a phoneline to tell the police about something that is not an emergency.

You should call this number if you are not in immediate danger but are concerned about how someone is behaving towards you.

When somebody answers the phone tell them that you would like to report something and tell them that you have autism or a learning disability. This will help them communicate with you better. It will also help them to work out if what is happening might be a hate crime or incident.

Going to the police station

If you think you are in danger you can go to the police station and talk to somebody.

Remember that the police are very busy and you might have to wait for somebody to talk to. Or they might ask you to come back at a different time.

You should tell the person that you are talking to that you think you might be in danger.

You should tell the person you are talking to that you have autism or a learning disability. This will help them communicate with you better. It will also help them to work out if what is happening might be a hate crime or incident.