A row broke out last night over the role the council and police have played in tackling the problem of hate crime in Harrow.
Arpita Dutt, chairman of the Harrow Hate Crime Forum, suggested not enough was being done to tackle hate crime in the borough when speaking at a meeting of the Harrow Police and Community Consultative Group.
But her words were met with angry rebuttals from a leading councillor and Harrow's top cop about the level of hate crime in Harrow.
Focusing on problems in Edgware, Ms Dutt said: “It is an area with challenging issues. There is a high degree of community tension.
“The victims of hate crime still feel insecure and unprotected and it does not take much for low levels of harassment to escalate.
“I don't think we are being assisted enough by agencies involved.”
She was accused of taking credit for other bodies' work when she said: “I am very pleased to say the achievements of this hate crime forum have been acknowledged London-wide.
“Other boroughs are signposted here to see our good practice because it is excellent.”
But Councillor Susan Hall, deputy leader of the council, was outraged at Ms Dutt's speech which she said belittled the work being done to combat hate crime by the council and the police.
She said: “Anyone would think we are living in absolute chaos in this borough.
“I just don't know where she was coming from at all. The levels of crime in Harrow are extremely low.
“It was completely outrageous to say we are not involved in the problem in Edgware. There are some very difficult problems, but we are hell bent on solving them.”
Ms Dutt countered that she was just reporting the situation as she saw it “on the ground”, working with victims of hate crime and dealing with some of the tensions that arise.
But Harrow Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Richard Walton said: “It was said victims of hate crime don't report to police because they don't have confidence in the police, but that's not the case.
“Most who don't come forward don't want to give evidence and go in front of a judge.
“There is not a huge element of race crime in this borough, far from it, we have one of the lowest levels of race crime in London.”
What do you think of efforts to tackle hate crime in Harrow? Leave your comments below.
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