Exclusive: less than 3% of hate crimes in South Yorkshire this year have led to charge
More than 1600 have been reported so far in 2021
We can exclusively reveal that less than 3 percent of hate crimes in South Yorkshire this year have resulted in anybody being charged.
We've got hold of stats showing more than 1600 hate crimes have been reported in our county so far in 2021 but only 47 people have been charged over one.
It's led to calls from victims for more police action to tackle the issue.
Zac Barker lives in Denaby near Doncaster - he was recently targeted by a stranger for being transgender but his attacker never faced justice:
"He got something out of the bin, set fire to it, and put it through my letterbox. He started telling me he was going to beat me up, he was going to get a car full of his friends to come round and kill me and set fire to my house.
"It made me very scared. And I'm not easily scared because I've seen quite a lot of things in my life. But it did affect me - it even affects me now going out and speaking to people. I'm very scared to tell people that I am trans or I am part of the LGBTQ community.
"In all honestly I do think the police could have done more, because it was just kind of dropped and left. They were very nice to me and very understanding but then just kind of left it there and it never really got resolved. And it does frighten me that he could still be out there."
Our stats show racial hate crimes have been the most common this year, followed by hate crimes related to sexual orientation.
There's been a rise of more than a quarter in incidents overall in South Yorkshire since 2018.
South Yorkshire Police say 85% of hate crime victims surveyed recently said they were satisfied with how they were treated by officers.
But some victims say they're so fed up of reporting incidents and nothing coming of them, they're now not bothering to report further attacks.
Xander Hurcome's been the target of homophobic abuse a number of times in Sheffield but says there's been a lack of police action:
"A car pulled up and was like 'Oi, F-slurs!' Obviously I'm not using the language they used. We managed to get their number plate and called it into the police.
"They came, they did an incident report, and they said 'oh sorry, we can't find them' and that was it. So we do not feel protected whatsoever by the police, we don't trust the police.
"It's very frustrating - people are constantly telling you to report it because the police will do something about it but they never do. And it gets to the point where...why bother? Talking to the police is scary anyway - I don't feel very believed."
Hate crime lead for South Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector Andy Berriman tells us the force takes it really seriously:
"That 3% is just one aspect of what we would call outcomes. Others include cautions and community resolutions.
"We want to charge people for serious offences, of course we do. We want to bring people to justice. However sometimes we've got to consider the views and the wishes of victims. And not all victims want to go down the prosecution route.
"Nearly 50% of cases we don't identify a suspect. And that's not for the lack of trying. These are generally where people have been often verbally abused in the street by an unknown person. And it's really difficult to track down and identify that person so that's a real problem for us.
"We do take all crime seriously that's reported to us. I would hope that those people who say nothing's come of it have had an explanation from the officers as to why we can't proceed. And yes I do understand that they might not always be happy with that. And we're not - we'd like to get positive outcomes for all victims but unfortunately it's not always possible."
Officers are urging anyone who suffers a hate crime to report it.