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GAY HATE COPS' PLEA FOR HELP
Officers call emergency meeting as West End homophobic attacks soar
POLICE have told the West End’s gay community “We need your help” as they hunt criminals behind a 30 per cent jump in homophobic hate crime.
The situation has become so bad police called an emergency summit yesterday (Thursday) for around 60 Soho pub and nightclub managers in an effort to improve fractured relations which some have suggested is the reason victims are failing to report incidents.
The meeting at Heaven nightclub, off Villiers Street, comes just weeks after three people were charged with manslaughter for the brutal homophobic attack on 62-year-old civil servant Ian Baynham in Trafalgar Square.
Police have also called on academics at Harvard University for advice on building confidence and improving their standing in the gay capital of London.
Superintendent Simon Ovens said it was his job to make life safer for the thousands of revellers who visit the West End’s gay venues every week.
He said: “It is our objective to make it safe for people who come here, for them to have a good time and not become victims of crime. We have seen a 30 per cent increase in homophobic crime and we can’t ignore it.”
Supt Ovens confirmed the meeting would be the start of what potentially could be a quarterly forum.
He added that the borough had a detection rate of around 48 per cent for homophobic crimes.
Police maintained that confidence in their policing from within with the gay community was high, but the reaction from many of the guests was more muted.
All attendees were asked to fill out a questionnaire which will be sent to the Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard for analysis.
Managers were asked how they would improve relations with police and what was the best strategy to stop homophobic attacks.
Stuart Turner, manager at Heaven, which hosts around four gay nights a week, has reduced overall by 50 per cent in the past six months.
He said: “We just offered up the venue and it’s hard to say if things are getting worse. The statistics are hard to read. Some people don’t have confidence in the police but on the whole they do a good job. The message is a good one. We all need to talk to each other a bit more.”
Westminster police currently employ two full-time LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) liaison officers whose job it is to work with homophobic crime in the gay community. |
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