A new campaign against disability-related harassment,
designed by local students at Bournemouth and Poole College is
being launched across Dorset.
The campaign called ‘Speak Out’ aims to give disabled people the
confidence to come forward and report bullying or harassment whilst
ensuring there is the support and advice that they need.
Councillor Lawrence Williams, Cabinet Member for Corporate
Policy and Implementation, Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “Many
people are shocked to hear that disabled people are victims of
bullying and harassment. By supporting campaigns such as ‘Speak
Out’ we can help give disabled people the confidence to report any
disability-related harassment and offer them reassurance that there
is support and advice available to them. It is also great to see
local students from Bournemouth and Poole College wanting to help
tackle this important issue and support disabled people across
Dorset.”
The campaign will be launched on Friday 22
February and is supported by local Councils in Dorset, Bournemouth
and Poole College, the Crown Prosecution Service, Dorset Police and
other local organisations in a bid to make people aware that
bullying and harassment is not acceptable.
Councillor Judy Butt, Cabinet Portfolio Holder
for Communities, Public Engagement and Participation, Borough of
Poole, said: “Disabled people must never feel that
they should have to tolerate verbal abuse, bullying or
harassment. We are confident that the excellent ‘Speak Out’
campaign will make people aware that disability related harassment
is never acceptable. The campaign will give people the
confidence to report incidents safely in the knowledge that
they will receive full support. We want people to know if
they feel unable to report incidents to the police then
they can call any of the Dorset councils or other local
organisations to get help and advice.”
Detective Superintendent Garrick Smith, Dorset
Police, said: “Dorset Police is concerned that some victims of
disability-related harassment are not reporting incidents to the
police. This may be for a number of reasons and we want to reassure
victims and their families that we will listen, we will take their
reports seriously and we will support them.
"Where there is clear evidence of a criminal
offence we will always look to prosecute the offender, and we will
support the victim through the court process. No one needs to
suffer in silence. Every day, victims of racial, homophobic and
other hate crime contact Dorset Police and we take these reports
very seriously – I urge anyone who is the victim of disability
related hate crime to report it.
"Victims do not have to report the incident
directly to Dorset Police, they can report all incidents of hate
crime by logging on to the Dorset Police website, or their local
authority website. They can also choose to use a third party to
report the crime or incident and there are links on our website for
this.”