Hate crime

A hate crime is when someone commits a crime against you because of your:

• disability 
• gender identity
• race
• religion
• sexual orientation
• any other actual or perceived difference

A hate crime can be:

• physical violence
• someone using offensive language towards you
• someone harassing you because of who you are (or who they think you are)
• someone posting abusive or offensive messages about you online
  

What should I do if it happens to me?

Report it to the police. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, always call 999.

When it’s not an emergency, call us on 0800 40 50 40 as soon as possible to report what happened. You can also text us on 61016 to tell us what happened, when and where.

You can also call your local police on 101 or visit your nearest police station.

You might want to shrug it off. But it’s important that you tell us. If we don’t know about it, we can’t stop it from happening again or getting worse, for you or someone else.

Even if you’re not sure if it was a crime or not, you should report it so we can investigate.

What should I do if I see it happening to someone else?

Hate crime doesn’t have to be targeted at you to report it. You can report anything you see happening to someone else, or report it on their behalf if they don’t want to.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, always call 999.

Call us on 0800 40 50 40 as soon as possible to report what happened. You can also text us on 61016 to tell us what happened, when and where.

You can also call your local police on 101, visit your nearest police station or speak to a police officer or police community support officer in person.

We understand you might not feel comfortable talking to the police about what happened. Although we will take you seriously and get you the support you need, there are other organisations you can report hate crime to.

True Vision

Find out more about hate crime and submit a report on the True Vision website:

English language reporting form
Welsh language reporting form

You can do this anonymously if you want to. The information will be passed on to the police to investigate.

Community Security Trust

Tell MAMA

What is BTP doing about hate crime?

The majority of people using and working on public transport will be safe and secure. However, we know hate crime can happen on public transport.

We won’t tolerate behaviour where someone is targeted because they are different or made to feel uncomfortable on their journey. We’re proud that our police officers and staff come from all walks of life and we believe everyone has the right to travel safely.

Here are some of the things we are doing to tackle hate crime:

• Working with communities and organisations across the country to raise awareness of what hate crime is and how it can be reported
• Holding monthly engagement events across the country, promoting our #WeStandTogether campaign to raise awareness of how to report hate crime and give people confidence that we will take reports seriously
• Our Independent Advisory Groups in different regions help us engage with communities and act as critical friends, reviewing our activity and operations to tackle hate crime
  

• For more information about our approach to tackling hate crime, read our hate crime strategy.

  
  

  ⬅️ Back to keeping yourself and other adults safe