Chester Students' Union is working in partnership with Cheshire police as a third party Hate Crime Reporting Centre.

What this means is that the Advice service can take reports of hate crime incidents, and provide a confidential space to discuss what has happened, and what options are available to you.

What is a Hate Crime?

A hate crime is a criminal offence which the victim or anyone else feels was motivated by the victim's:

  • Race or ethnicity
  • Religion or belief (including no belief)
  • Disability
  • Transgender identity
  • Sexual Orientation

On some occasions, an incident may also happen due to the perpetrator believing the victim to have these characteristics. A hate crime does not have to involve a physical attack. It could include verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, harassment, bullying, assault, as well as damage to property.

What is a Hate Incident?

All incidents where a person is targeted because of their protected characteristics should be recorded as hate incidents. They become hate crimes when the incidents have included actions which break the laws of the land. Hate incidents cause alarm and distress, and we encourage you to report any incident, even if you think it does not break the law.

Reporting Hate Crime

By reporting hate crime, you are helping to demonstrate that it is never ok to target someone based on any characteristics that make them who they are. The police can use reports to investigate and de-escalate specific situations, and can also use the wider data to identify any trends happening in their area, and target these with police campaigns.

There are multiple ways you can report a hate crime or hate incident:

Report to the Police

If you or anyone with you is in immediate danger, please call 999. Otherwise, you can call the non-emergency number which is 101 to report a crime, or attend your nearest police station to make a statement.

Report Online

If you do not want to approach the police directly, you can report online through True Vision. True Vision is an online platform through which you can log the incident which has happened. You can choose to report anonymously, however please be aware this will limit the ability of the police to investigate and prosecute the offenders.

Speak to the Students' Union

If you're still unsure on whether to report, how to report, or just need to speak to someone first, our advisors are trained to support you. You can get in touch with the team through our contact form to arrange an appointment to discuss this further.

You can also report the incident informally through our reporting form, which we will then use to log the incident on our incident map. The reporting form also asks if you would like support from our advice team.

Speak to the Proctor's Office

If the hate incident has involved another member of the University, you may wish to report the incident to the University proctor who will investigate internally. You can email the proctor at universityproctor@chester.ac.uk

How can the advice service help with hate crime reporting?

No matter what you choose to do, we can be on hand to support you and discuss your options. 
The advice service can:

  • Listen to your account of what has happened
  • Help you to complete a report of the hate incident
  • Support you in meetings with the proctor’s office
  • Advise on other areas which may be affected by the incident, including upcoming deadlines, or housing, for example.