Crimes Against Places of Religious Worship

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/26/004389/M

Version Date: 20/03/2026

The Performance Analysis Department and The Alliance Business Change Department have provided the following information:

Data Source:

Crime information system – Niche

Data Processing:

I have searched the Niche Crime Universe for crimes with a location subtype of “Church/Religious Building” or contains one of the following keywords within the Occurrence Address Building Name:

•         Church

• Synagogue
• Mosque
• Temple
• Monastery

I have manually removed false positives from the data set such as “Church cottage” etc and have determined the type of religious building based upon a review of the Building name, Occurrence Summary and OEL.

1. The number of recorded crimes in your force area from 1 January 2018 to present where the location was a place of religious worship (church, mosque, synagogue, temple, gurdwara, or other).
   2. If available, please break down these figures by type of religious site and by crime category (e.g., criminal damage, arson, burglary, hate crime, assault).
   Please see attached spreadsheet – Record 2.
2. If your force does not hold records that identify crimes at places of religious worship, please provide a justification for this. For example:
   – The location type is not available to record on your reporting system
   – It has never been recorded in this level of detail
      – Officers are instructed not to record that particular location type
      – Other reasons (please specify)
   Not applicable.
3. Please confirm whether your crime recording system (e.g., NICHE, Athena, or other) has a field for “location type” and whether “religious site” is an available option.
   Yes, there is a location field with a subtype of “Church/Religious Building. Please note that this is not a compulsory field.
4. Please state whether there are any plans to improve recording granularity for crimes against religious sites.
   At this time, there are no intentions/plans to review the current picklist values for religious sites for further granularity.

In regard to hate crime upon religious sites:

1. Neighbourhood Policing Inspectors receive daily alerts of hate crime in their area and will react if series develops.
2. The Force Intelligence Bureau monitors crimes including repeat victim/location.
3. Local held bi-monthly Independent Advisory Group (IAG) invites community to discuss hate crimes.
4. Local councils are in the process of developing 3^rd party reporting centres to encourage communities to report hate crimes.
5. Op Alondra weekly intelligence briefing attended by NPT Ch Insp where upcoming protests are discussed and any intelligence or crimes fed into crime recording system.