A special task group to combat the silence surrounding race hate crime and to encourage victims to come forward is being set up in Harold Hill.

The joint police and council initiative comes after shock figures revealed that Gooshays ward had the second highest rate of racially motivated crime in the whole of Havering.

They surfaced after police were asked to submit figures for the recent Havering crime and disorder audit.

Now the first meeting between police and council representatives, part of the borough's ongoing anti-crime strategy, is set for May 22 where more details will be unveiled.

Insp Andy Hunt from Havering police said: "The task group wants to know how to make the police more accessible to ethnic minority groups who may feel isolated in a community which is predominately white."

He added: "By working in partnerships with other agencies we are hoping to encourage victims of racial crimes to come forward and report it.

"We need to build a trusting relationship between minority groups and the police. If the crime is not reported we can't act on it."

Though the task group is not a direct response, the move follows on the heels of the public's condemnation of the Metropolitan police in the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation detailed in the MacPhearson report and the two recent racially motivated bombings in Brixton and Brick Lane.

The police commitment to tackling racially motivated crime in Havering has been boosted by the creation of a community safety unit based at Hornchurch police station.

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