If you feel unsafe, attacked, threatened, hurt, or targeted because of your race, religion, sexuality, gender, age, or disability, you can report this to the Police.

Everyone has the right to report, including if you are a witness, family member or colleague. You can also bring a support person with you to report. This could be a family member, a friend or someone you trust.

Step 1: You make a report to the Police

Make sure that you and any other affected people are in a safe place, away from the offender.

If someone is in danger or an incident is happening now, call 111 immediately.

If you have difficulty hearing or talking on the phone, you can register for an emergency TXT service. Register now for the service by visiting www.police.govt.nz/111-txt. Regardless of the language you speak call 111 in an emergency.

If an incident has already happened and no one is in immediate danger, call 105, or report it online at www.105.police.govt.nz. You can’t text 105.

If you are Deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, speech impaired or find it hard to talk, you can use the New Zealand Relay Service. www.nzrelay.co.nz to call 105

Step 2: If anyone thinks the incident was motivated by hate towards a person or group’s identity (such as their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or age) Police may record this as ‘perceived hate’ on your report.

Note: ‘Perceived hate’ does not mean that hate (bias or prejudice) has been proven. It means that from someone’s point of view, they believe the event was targeting someone’s identity.

Step 3: You will receive a case reference number.

You can add information, request an update, or withdraw a report with this number by visiting www.webforms.police.govt.nz/en/update-report

Step 4: If your report is investigated or can’t be investigated

If your report is investigated and there is evidence that the crime could have happened because of hate (bias or prejudice):

Police may include information on your report to allow the Judge to consider this when they sentence people in court.
Police may take a Victim Impact Statement, which is an opportunity for a victim to tell the court how the crime has personally impacted them.

If your report can’t be investigated, this might be because what has happened was not illegal, but is still not ok, your report is closed, or you do not hear back from Police:

The information you include could be important for future investigations.
- For example, if you or someone else were to file another report about the same person or place, Police may see a pattern of behaviour. This will support Police to track and prevent crime and help keep our communities safe.

What to include in your Police report

Your report is based on your understanding of what has happened and why. Please include:

any words (such as hurtful name calling), symbols, or actions that supports your understanding of why this has happened
- It may be useful to explain ‘I believe this happened because they are Muslim…’ or ‘I felt targeted because of my disability’
any evidence such as videos, pictures, online content, text messages or letters
include the location and time the incident happened
anything else you think is important (this can be in bullet points)

You don’t need to be able to prove hate-motivation to include it in your report. NZ Police record all reported hate-motivated crimes and incidents based on a person’s perception. This means if anyone, including the call taker, police officer, victim or witness believe that a crime was motivated by bias or prejudice, it will be flagged in the Police system as ‘perceived hate’. It does not mean that hate has been proven to be a motivation.

Any further evidence or investigation carried out or Court proceedings may determine whether hate could be the motivation for the offence. If investigated and it is decided that the crime was not hate-motivated, then the flag may be removed.

For information on:

Making a Victim Impact Statement, visit www.victimsupport.org.nz
Police reporting and investigation processes, visit www.victimsinfo.govt.nz
Your Rights and ways to get support, visit www.victimsinfo.govt.nz

To access this information visit this website www.police.govt.nz/hate

Posted from: https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-services/advice-victims/hate-motivated-crime