A community panel scrutinising the way hate crimes are dealt with by the police will be launched in Bradford tomorrow.

The Odsal Lay Panel will take an independent look at recording and investigation of racist and homophobic incidents in the division. Made up of seven members of the public, the pilot project aims to increase public confidence in the way hate crimes are dealt with.

Odsal Police Divisional Commander and chairman of the panel, Chief Superinten-dent Dougie Bell, said the initiative would make a difference.

He said: "The panel is here to enable independent scrutiny in these cases, and we will do this openly and honestly.

"It makes sense for people with a detailed understanding of different community groups to help us ensure matters are properly recorded and dealt with."

The seven-strong panel is made up of Nazaket Ali (West Bowling Youth Initiative), Shanaz Bokhari (Canterbury Family Support Unit), Mohammed Singh Bussan JP, Nazmin Din (Grange Upper School), Paul Hamilton (Parkside Youth Centre), Dayal Sharma (Bradford and District Minority Ethnic Communities' Police Liaison Committee) and Vaughan Chapman (Bradford Council Social Services.

Nazmin Din said: "Our aim is to provide a positive image of police and community relations across the division - especially to young people."

Shanaz Bokhari added: "We will enable members of the community to be confident enough to reach the police in a positive way."

Members meet twice a month to review incident involving different racial groups and members of the gay and lesbian community.

Questions can be put to the officers co-ordinating and investigating offences and incidents can be randomly selected as part of a quality sampling process.

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