Statistics from the Metropolitan Police show that homophobic crime has soared nearly 20 per cent in one year.
Homophobic or anti-LGBT crimes in London have risen nearly 20 per cent from March 2015 to March 2016 a report out from the Metropolitan Police shows today.
In total 1861 crimes were reported in London 2015 to 2016 compared with 1559 the year before.
The rise accounts for a 19.4 per cent increase.
Whilst some boroughs have managed to decrease the number of homophobic crimes by up to 20 per cent like Merton, some boroughs like Haringey have seen a 259 per cent rise in anti-LGBT crime.
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The Met believes these increases are down to a range of factors, including improvements in crime recording, willingness of victims to report hate crime, world events, improved awareness of Met staff to identify these offences and support provided by more than 900 specialist hate crime investigators and our work with partners to support victims.
Assistant Commissioner Helen King, Territorial Policing said,
“London is a major, much visited, vibrant and growing capital city with diverse policing needs and is one of the safest global cities in the world. It is for this reason that people from other countries invest millions of pounds in London. There are not many capital cities in the world with such low rates of serious crime, such as murder and gun crime.
“The Met is continuing to work with partners, businesses and the public to reduce the number of offences taking place. Our officers have spent the last year conducting both pro active operations and preventative work in order to reduce crime, better support victims and build more engagement with communities.
“We will continue to keep up our intensified focus on areas such as violence where we have seen a rise in recorded offences. We must not lose sight of the reductions we have achieved over the last five years.”
