Scottish Partnership Work on Hate Crime

ACPOS LGBT Reference Group Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland ACPOS LGBT Ref Group brings together:  All 8 Police Forces in Scotland & British Transport Police  All 3 Scottish LGBT Orgs & Scottish Transgender Alliance  Gay Police Association & National Trans Police Association  Local LGBT and Transgender groups where capacity exists Quarterly meetings Provides strategic direction, identifies training needs, develops and implements action plans, creates guidance

ACPOS Hate Crime Guidance Manual Created in partnership with National LGBT Orgs Main Benefit:  Clear good practice standard established around which local training can then be based for consistency Key Challenges:  Hostile anti-LGBT Media Reactions “Political Correctness Gone Mad”, “Waste of Public Money”  Reaching beyond those with Equality & Diversity, Hate Crime and LGBT Liaison roles to all front-line officers

Key Hate Crime Training Strategy Part of probationer, Detective Officer, SIO and critical incident training Recognition of need for variety of training methods, including community engagement LGBT community involved in oversight of and actual delivery of police training to enhance credibility and impact of the training Basis for ongoing, appropriate & proportionate response to hate crime is the requirement to train all police in their duty to respect, protect and promote human rights

Transgender Training DVD Created short Trans-Inclusive Policing DVD for use in morning briefing sessions with front-line police officers Key Challenges:  Diversity of trans people filmed  Managing complexity and tone Main Benefits:  Accessible training resource widely distributed  Encouraged more transgender engagement

Learning from our experiences Legislation helps progress but is not essential Minimal budgets but training resources don’t need to be “glossy” to be effective Prioritise creating specific local expertise as slow process to improve general basic awareness of wider majority LGBT Community Reps also need training about hate crime good practice otherwise less effective at local level, especially in regard to transphobic hate crime