Landlord steps in to tackle hate crime

Landlord William Sutton Homes has trained staff and appointed two estate offices – in Widnes and Warrington – as designated reporting points.

This means that any victim of hate crime, or any other local residents who believe they have witnessed it, can report the details in confidence without needing to contact the police directly.

William Sutton Homes’ staff can then pass on the information to Cheshire Constabulary to either head-off general growing community unrest or take action on specific cases.

“A hate crime is any occurrence that is perceived to be motivated by ‘hate’ from the point of view of anyone involved, whether that be the victim, call handler, friend, relative or onlooker,” said Nicola Cross, housing officer with William Sutton Homes in Warrington and now one of the trained advisors on hand to speak to people wanting to report hate crime.

“Many people find it easier to speak to someone at the housing association as they might feel they are more accessible and perhaps more familiar than a police officer.

“We were initially approached last year by Cheshire police to see if we were interested in becoming report centres. My colleague at Widnes, Tracey Gilbody, and I, have now completed the training and the estate offices are now officially reporting centres.

“As a responsible landlord, this is a valuable additional service we can offer to local residents.

“Hopefully people will recognise that it is now easier to report this sort of crime and working together with the police, we can tackle any issues that may arise.”

Once an alleged incident has been reported at one of the centres, the information will be passed on to the police. If the information is anonymous, it still means officers can monitor numbers of allegations in a specific area and so take action swiftly if it appears tensions are growing in a neighbourhood.

If they have more detail, they can investigate specific cases.

Diversity Sergeant Jackie May, of Cheshire Police, said: “Hate crime will not be tolerated in Cheshire. We are very happy that by working with our partners, like William Sutton Homes, we are giving the people of Cheshire another way of tackling this important issue.”

William Sutton Homes manages more than 900 properties in Widnes and Warrington.