Hate and harassment

We believe that our communities are stronger together. If you experience or witness hate crime, you can report it to us or South Yorkshire Police.

Reporting hate crime

In person:

Online or phone:

To South Yorkshire Police:

View our easy read guide to reporting hate and harassment.

What is hate crime?

Hate crime is an incident that targets someone based on their social identity. This could be because of:

  • disability
  • gender identity
  • race, ethnicity or nationality
  • religion, faith or belief
  • sexual orientation

Hate crimes can take place anywhere - in person or online. They include:

  • verbal abuse
  • threatening behaviour
  • damage to property
  • physical assault
  • offensive graffiti
  • offensive comments or images on social media or text messages

What happens when I report hate crime?

We'll contact you to talk about what we can do to make you feel safer. We usually do this within one working day. We may ask our liaison officers or victim support to talk to you.

We'll investigate the incident so we can take appropriate action. This could include:

  • prosecution
  • restorative justice
  • enforcement action by Berneslai Homes
  • a warning

Can I report for someone else?

Yes. If you witness a hate incident you can report this. You can report it even if you don’t know the name of the person it happened to.

Can I make a report without giving my details?

Yes you can, although it may make it difficult to investigate.

Reporting online hate or abuse

Many social media platforms have standards which set out how those using them should behave. Posts or comments which are abusive, harmful, harassment or false go against these standards and can be reported.

The platform may decide to take action against the reported content. You can also take action to protect yourself by blocking those who are not acting as they should online.

Find out more about how you can report posts or comments:

Other ways to report hate crime

As well as the ways listed above, you can also report hate crime to:

No place for hate

Our 'no place for hate' campaign aims for our borough to be a place where nobody faces abuse, online or in their community. We all need to know the effect we can have on others when we comment or post online. What might just be seen as a comment by someone can cause real harm to others that read it.

Support the campaign

No place for hate isn’t just about tackling hate on our own social media pages. We want to create positive online communities across Barnsley and beyond. That’s why we’re asking for our everyone to get involved.

You can download our social media assets and share these onto your own pages with the hashtag #NoPlaceForHate.

Sign up to our pledge and let us know how you’ll help to challenge online hate.

Tackling hate and abuse on our social media pages

We’ve been taking steps to tackle abuse, false information and poor behaviour on our pages. Our social media acceptable use policy covers our zero-tolerance approach to abuse. We can take action against any post or comment on our channels which breaches this policy.