If you or someone you know has experienced hate crime, reporting it can stop it happening to someone else. Reporting it also helps the police to understand the level of hate crime in your area and improve the way they respond to it.

Incidents can be reported by victims or witnesses. Incidents can range from verbal abuse, threatening or aggressive behaviour – even through letters, emails or social media – criminal damage to personal property, or physical attacks.

You should contact the police to report hate crime. Call 101 if it’s not an emergency or fill in an online crime form on the Avon and Somerset Police website.

You can also report hate crime anonymously to CrimeStoppers on their website or by calling 0800 555 111.

The emergency SMS service lets people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech impediment contact the emergency service by texting 999. Mobile phone numbers must be registered with the service before it can be used.