Crime Advice and Information
Hate crime
What is a hate crime?
A hate crime is an incident that is believed, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someones race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or gender.
Incidents can take many forms:
- Verbal abuse
- Intimidation
- Malicious gossip or rumours
- Graffiti
- Property damage
- Physical assault
- Threatening or offensive behaviour
- Threatening or offensive language
- Bullying
- Theft
Report it
You should report an incident if you;
- Are the victim of a hate incident
- Witnessed a hate incident
To report an incident:
- Call the Police on 101. In an emergency call 999
- Text 60066. Start the message with 'Police' followed by a space and the details of what and where the problem is. Remember to ask for the incident reference number
- Speak to a police officer or police community support officer
- Visit your nearest police station
The Community Safety Partnership
The Community Safety Partnerships of Kent and Medway have a Hate Incident Reporting Line. If you wish to speak to someone other than the police, call 0800 138 1624. The service is run by trained, non-police staff and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Night time safety
Maidstone has the largest night-time economy in Kent, with a total capacity of 20,000 licensed venues, generating £75 million a year.
Our night time safety projects are:
- Maidstone Alcohol Education Programme, which provides regular effective alcohol education through schools.
- Youth activities, which engage young people and communities to reinforce alcohol health messages within the town centre.
- Urban Blue Bus on Friday nights, which increases safety in the town centre, and reduces the number of ASB and health issues.
- Urban Blue Water Bottle Campaign, which provides messages about excess alcohol consumption.
Road safety
Working with Kent County Council, we use the Kent Road Safety Campaign to promote road safety awareness to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads.
More information can be found on our Campaigns page.
Reduce re-offending
We are working with other agencies to reduce re-offending for all ages. This work includes raising awareness of existing services and activities.
Work is targeted around known reasons for people to offend. The work includes education, training and employment, as well as addressing housing needs.
The Integrated Offender Management Unit now sits within the Maidstone Community Safety Unit and is overseen by Kent Police and links closely with the Kent Probation Service, Maidstone Prison and other services.
Substance misuse
If you feel that you or someone you know needs help with an alcohol or drug problem you can find advice and help on the Kent County Council website
Needle Exchange
If you are using a needle and syringe, dispose of them safely.
Crime Reduction Initiative (CRI) is a charity based at Mill House, Mill Street. It offers a needle exchange service from 9am – 5pm every day. It has been working with pharmacies in Maidstone and the following now offer the service:
- Lloyds Pharmacy, 58-60 Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, ME16 8SE
- Lloyds Pharmacy, 11 Park Wood Parade, Park Wood, Maidstone, ME15 9HL
We provide a collection service for clinical waste. More information about the service can be found on our clinical collections page.
Preventing violent extremism (Terrorism)
The Prevent Strategy is part of our Government's Counter-Terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
Prevent looks to combat all types of extremism. It doesn't look to criminalise people for holding extreme views. Instead it seeks to prevent individuals from using, or promoting, violent activity to enforce these views.
It's driven by many local and national groups, each with a crucial role to play in making sure our local communities are safe from the threat of extremism.
No one's better placed to spot and stop potential extremist activity in your community than you are. Some examples include:
- Posting leaflets or displaying posters that carry a violent extremist message
- Extremist groups meeting at community centres
- Viewing terrorist or violent extremist promotional videos
Who to contact
If you're suspicious of how someone's acting or you have other information relating to terrorist activity, call the anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321 or the police on 999. All calls will be strictly confidential.
If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you can use a text phone to call the hotline on 0800 032 4539.
For further information visit Kent Police’s website or the ‘Act Early' website.
Training
Online training is open to anyone that may come into contact with people who might be vulnerable to becoming involved in extremism.
The online course takes around 15 minutes.