11,000 hate crimes reported against officers in past three years

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to UK police forces found that there were 10,922 reported hate crimes against officers from 27 forces from 2022 to 2025. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher – even close to double – as another 21 forces were not able to provide the information.

In Cleveland Police alone, there were 78 recorded hate crimes against officers in 2024-25, up from 49 the previous year.

Cleveland Police Federation Chair Lauren Somerville is backing the anti-racism campaign launched by Humberside Police Federation in order to encourage better reporting of hate crimes and do more to protect police officers and staff. The campaign aims to get racially motivated abuse or assault recorded as a separate incident, in order to gauge the scale of the problem.

Ms Somerville said: “Officers are being assaulted every day, and when it is racially or religiously aggravated it brings an extra layer of hatred. We really need to understand this, we need to recognise it, and I think we need to take a different approach to it.

“We also need to understand how we can look after these officers better, because these assaults are motivated by hate, and it becomes so much more personal. It is based on something that somebody cannot change, it’s fundamental to who they are.”

Ms Somerville said she wanted Cleveland Police officers to know that the Federation was there to support them if they suffered any assaults, including verbal assaults. She said: “It would break my heart to think that any officer didn’t feel supported, but especially if an officer felt like they were a victim of hate crime and that there was a barrier to them coming to us for help.”

She also carried out her own snapshot survey of officers to find out more about the scale of the problem. Her questions were:

• How many times have you been assaulted in the last 12 months?
• Were any of these assaults motivated by race or religion?
• Were any of these assaults motivated by hate?
• How many of these assaults have you reported?
• How many of these assaults resulted in injury?
• How many days off have you had as a result of an assault?

She received 121 anonymous responses and said the results were “worrying”. She said: “A lot of people aren’t reporting it when they get assaulted, so I want to understand what the barriers are. Is it because the forms are too cumbersome and too lengthy, or they haven’t got time, or they don’t feel like it’s worthwhile?

“Also, officers are not taking time off work when they’re assaulted. I know that officers across the country prioritise the needs of others above their own, and that it’s really hard when you’re working as a police officer to put your needs anywhere near the top. I’ve got more questions to ask, and we are going to go deeper into this.”

She continued: “One of the things that Cleveland wants to do is record any incident of any assault non-injury – the Section 5, Section 4 and Section 4A type offences, which police officers suffer every day. Recording that will give us good critical data on how officers face abuse.

“And the same with the trauma that we face. Cleveland Police is really supportive of officers recording any incidents of trauma. Obviously that’s subjective, because what traumatises one officer might not traumatise another officer, but the fact that Cleveland Police is supporting that is a great step forward.

“The more that we introduce small steps like this, the more we change the culture of how officers feel that they can report things. If anybody wants to speak to me about hate crime or being assaulted – or this issue of reporting incidents – my door is always open and I’m here to listen.”