Promising Practice

Training of police in the identification and handling of hate crimes

Hate crime
Uddannelse af politiet i identifikation og håndtering af hadforbrydelser
Država
Denmark
Guidelines
Improve recording and data collection
Ground of discrimination
Cooperation with civil society and community organisations
Cross institutional cooperation
Provision of guidance, training and capacity building

Organisation

The National Police (Rigspolitiet).

Start and end date

Ongoing (as of May 2021). The training is offered as part of the national training course catalogue. Generally, the training is carried out 2 times each year.

Scope

National.

Target group(s)

Police personnel who have contact with victims of hate crimes, Police officers who investigate hate crimes or personnel groups who are involved in quality control / controlling functions related to hate crimes.

Funding

The National Police funds and runs the training programme.

Objectives

  • Enhance knowledge of hate crimes among police personnel as a crime problem – both from a criminological and victimological perspective.
  • Enhance the ability of the police officers to identify and correctly administratively record hate crimes.
  • Enhance the ability of police officers to handle hate crimes and hate crime victims e.g., investigate hate crime.

Outputs

Not applicable.

Description

  • From 2022 it is a two-day training programme. The training course covers legislation, human rights, case studies, sensitivity in relation to LGBT issues, and other topics. There are usually25-30 participants per course.

Critical success factors

  • Involve key stakeholder in the training programme e.g., organizations representing the main victim groups. Involving these key stakeholders in the training helps to promote diversity and provides participants with insight into the needs of different group of beneficiaries

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

It has been a key principle behind the training to seek to involve community organizations and NGO’s in the training. Currently, Cooperating partners in this training are Prosecution Service, the Muslim Council, the Jewish community in Denmark, and the National Association of LGBT persons in Denmark.

Monitoring and evaluation

The training is being monitored by the National Police and is regularly adjusted to reflect best practice and the current problems and needs related to the handling of hate crimes within the police.

Publicly available contact details

Danish National Police
Polititorvet 14
1780 Copenhagen V
Tel:+45 3314 8888
Email:politi@politi.dk