Despite this, too often we find that the first police on the scene are too slow or don’t understand the seriousness of the matter, or the subsequent investigation misses vital evidence. The Met Police are genuinely trying to improve their performance when it comes to anti-Jewish hate crime, but they would be the first to admit that investigations can sometimes drag on for an unacceptable amount of time or just dry up completely.
This is a national problem. According to the most recent Home Office figures, 22% of all religious hate crimes in England and Wales targeted Jews, even though we are one of the smallest faith communities.
Nobody knows how many antisemitic hate crimes are prosecuted each year, because the Crown Prosecution Service is not able to produce that data. But the sense is that too few cases reach court; and when they do, the pandemic-induced backlog means that by the time they come to trial the community has already moved on, and the positive PR benefit of a successful conviction is lost.
The Met Police and the CPS have all the right policies for tackling antisemitism. Their hate crime specialists and senior officers understand what is at stake. But that all counts for little if the frontline work of responding to, and investigating, hate crimes fails to deliver vital results.
