Police want to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Police want to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community

2:20pm Monday 6th August 2012 in News By Helen Morton

A BASINGSTOKE PCSO has set up a scheme to help combat homophobic hate crime.

PCSO Rebecca Quirk, who is a lesbian and gay liaison officer, LAGLO, will be holding a quarterly beat surgery at Poison Bar, in Old Reading Road, to raise awareness of where victims of such crime can go and what the police are able to do.

She will be going to the gay night at the bar along with Andrew Smith, of Healthy Gay Hampshire, who will be handing out condoms and advice about safe sex. By taking a proactive approach to engaging with the gay community, PCSO Quirk hopes to raise awareness of the services that the police offer.

PCSO Quirk, of the Old Basingstoke and Lychpit Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said: “Some people have told me that they don’t want to bother the police, and don’t report hate crime.

“But if we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything about it.”

“I’m trying to get out and about and promote the fact that people can speak to a LAGLO officer. My job is to be a point of contact. People in Basingstoke need to trust the police so I’m going out and meeting people from the LGBT community.

“I’ve started to get recognised when I’m out and about now which is great.”

The next beat surgery in Poison will be on a date in September, yet to be confirmed. For details, check the twitter feed of @BasingstokeCops.