Confidence Building...

Merseyside Police and the Criminal Justice Board are launching an event to increase the confidence of individuals from the lesbian, gay and bisexual community, in the criminal justice system as a whole. They are also targeting the gypsy/traveller community, and BRM groups.

The event is set to take place on February 14 2009, and the day will start with a dramatised hate crime trial provided by Afta Thought.

It is designed to give the attendees an accurate representation of a trial, it's based on a real case and uses court transcripts to form the basis of the dramatisation. During the play the audience will be asked to make key decisions using an electronic voting tool.

This will be followed by a discussion facilitated by Stop Hate UK - an independent charity organisation who have extensive experience in diversity issues and hate crime - who will try to identify any areas of improvement that can be made in the criminal justice system to increase confidence.

At the start of the event, a number of questions will be asked to individuals to gauge the attendee's initial levels of confidence and satisfaction in relation to the criminal justice system, and these will then be repeated at the close of the event. Once again this will be done using the electronic voting tool.

Merseyside Police hope that the event will:

* Encourage minority community members to sign up for scrutiny panels that are run by criminal justice agencies.

* Promote better understanding of how the criminal justice system works.

* Encourage a more positive perception of the criminal justice system in the eyes of minority groups.

* Be discussed by the Merseyside Criminal Justice Board at an Executive level.

The event takes place at Sefton Magistrates Court, Merton Road, Bootle, Liverpool. It starts at 12 noon and runs to 4pm. There are 60 places available for the LGB event.

For more information on the event and places available, contact Greg Lambert at Merseyside Police on: 0151 777 1689 or 07855 202310. Alternatively, email Merseyside Police by clicking here.