WEST Mercia Police has launched a new Hate crime policy.

Hate crime is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility towards someone based on their perceived disability, race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Hate crime is a particularly insidious offence and robust action will be taken with an assumption of prosecution.

The police work closely with the Hate Incident Partnership which is made up of a number of organisations.

Have a look at the website at www.nwcsp.org/hate-crime.aspx for more details.

On a different matter, you may have seen a couple of features within this paper recently where the police have tried to reunite property with its owners.

When we do recover stolen property, it assists greatly if it is marked in some way.

You may wish to imprint your house number/name and post code, attach special tamper proof labels or use a forensic marking liquid.

There are a number of forensic marking products available and more information is available on the force website which can be found at www.westmercia.police.uk For those with access to a computer I would like to promote a website called www.immobolise.com which allows you to record details of your possessions in case they are stolen or lost, and best of all it is free of charge!

Immobilise is supported by the Home Office and used by the majority of UK police forces.

It allows individuals to create a database of their personal property including serial numbers and even photos.

The database is accessible to police forces nationally, and in the event that recorded property is lost or stolen, it can be flagged as such on the website by the user.

This alerts officers should they subsequently recover property and allows them to check it against the database.

Best wishes for a happy and safe Easter.

INSPECTOR PAUL CROWLEY Kidderminster Police