Operation Hail – Lancashire Constabulary
Operation Hail was developed to tackle the persistent issue of hate crimes against individuals in the workplace, including taxi drivers, takeaway staff, retail employees, hospital staff, security personnel, and even police officers. These individuals often normalise abuse as “part of the job,” leading to chronic underreporting and a lack of police engagement. Op Hail was designed to encourage and support victims in reporting hate crime abuse that they face.
The aim was clear: increase reporting, improve victim confidence, and ensure incidents are investigated robustly. The initiative sought to break the cycle of silence and mistrust by creating accessible reporting mechanisms and raising awareness among both victims and employers.
Delivery of the intervention was driven predominantly by the hate crime department (Neighbourhood Prevention Team) who oversaw and co-ordinated the operation, whilst the Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) visited a variety of local business and partners. These partners and businesses then assisted by spreading word to other local professionals to help raise awareness. This ensured a multi-agency approach was taken, with the NHS being a strong partner in engaging with Op Hail.
The most recent Hate Crime Awareness week (10/10/2026 – 17/10/2026) has now concluded with a focus on delivering Op Hail inputs and materials to local businesses throughout the week. More up-to-date data will soon be collated to further assess the impact of Op Hail; however, we already know that at least 300+ businesses were visited in South division alone (a forcewide projection should be somewhere around the 800-900 business mark in this week alone, excluding rest of year).
Internal engagement included briefings led by the hate crime team for NPT, and investigators, alongside guidance documents and training sessions. Externally, partners were equipped through Third Party Reporting Centre training, enabling them to act as trusted intermediaries for victims to report on their behalf, where required.
The project combined digital campaigns (“Op Hail is Coming”), media outreach, and direct engagement with businesses. Officers conducted walk-arounds at taxi ranks and retail outlets, promoting reporting tools and building trust. Police social media channels were utilised, as was local radio, to help further raise awareness of the initiative. This collaborative approach ensured that victims understood hate crime is unacceptable and that Lancashire Constabulary is committed to supporting them and bringing offenders to justice.
Op Hail impact
Operation Hail has delivered a significant and measurable impact since its launch. The following analysis shows clear progress in workplace hate crime reporting:
Pre-Op Hail (Oct 2023 – Aug 2024): 699 hate crimes recorded in South Division, with at least 185 (26%) occurring in the workplace.
Post-Op Hail (Oct 2024 – Aug 2025): 630 hate crimes recorded, with at least 253 (40%) occurring in the workplace.
This represents a 37% increase (+68 reports) in workplace-related hate crimes since Op Hail began.
While overall hate crime volume fell slightly, workplace reporting rose sharply—precisely the outcome Op Hail targeted. This demonstrates growing awareness, reduced tolerance for hate crime, and improved victim confidence in Lancashire Constabulary.
Questionnaire feedback from businesses and professionals during weeks of action reinforces this success:
South (618 responses): Strongly agree rose from 17.3%to 35.1%, agree from 48.5% to 57%—a total increase of 26.3%.
West (290 responses): Strongly agree rose from 19% to 35.5%, agree from 45.5% to 57.2%—a total increase of 28.2%.
East (356 responses): Strongly agree rose from 23.3% to 44.9%, agree from 44.7% to 50.6%—a total increase of 27.5%.
These figures confirm that Op Hail is not only increasing reporting but also improving perceptions of police support and trust among victims and businesses. Positive feedback from partners reinforces this success. For example, a senior matron at Ormskirk Hospital praised the initiative for making staff feel heard and supported.
Media coverage, social media engagement, and strong partner collaboration further amplified the campaign’s reach. The successful bid for additional Lanpac funding (£2,334) to expand Op Hail forcewide evidences external confidence in its sustainability and effectiveness. Furthermore, Op Hail has now been adopted by Cumbria police, who also drove Op Hail during hate crime awareness week.
This is what success looks like: more victims coming forward, stronger partnerships, and a clear message that hate crime is unacceptable.
Potential avenues for future development
A key improvement that could be implemented for Operation Hail would be embedding a dedicated tracking system within police systems to avoid manual data sifting. This would streamline performance monitoring and enable real-time analysis of trends and outcomes. However, this would likely be quite challenging to implement. Therefore, an alternative measure could be to make it mandatory for attending officers to obtain a victim’s occupation so that the manual sift can be performed much quicker and more accurately.
Introducing mandatory briefings for police officers throughout the year to raise awareness and knowledge of those set to deliver Op Hail to the local communities would also be beneficial to ensure that the initiative is being effectively communicated to those who have the potential to be impacted.
As we now have more Neighbourhood Alert / Lancashire Talking sign-ups (obtained through the week(s) of action), we can look to further utilise this system to provide more information to our communities throughout the year, and particularly on our next ‘Op Hail Week of Action’.
Finally, expanding multilingual resources and culturally tailored messaging would further reduce barriers for victims from diverse backgrounds, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility. These refinements would enhance efficiency, scalability, and impact in future iterations of the initiative.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Operation Hail.
For further information, please contact Op Hail leads –
Inspector 3778 Jon Cisco – 3778@lancashire.police.uk
PC 2175 Matty Manuel – 2175@lancashire.police.uk
