Reporting hate crimes presents dilemma for many officials

Attorney general wants to improve reporting process

In this story: Race-related crimes top list Additional training required RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Department Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Janet Reno on Wednesday summoned police officials across the country to the Justice Department to discuss ways of improving the identification and reporting of hate crimes in the United States.

Many police and elected officials fear that reporting such crimes could harm a community's public image.

"In some cases, a mayor or police chief may just be afraid they'll look bad," said one police official who participated in the meeting, which included representatives of the International Association of Police Chiefs, black law enforcement executives, and Hispanic American police commanders.

MESSAGE BOARD   • Hate crimes   • Gay rights   • The state of race relations

Sensational media coverage, added one official who asked not to be identified, is also part of the problem.

"They'll overdo coverage of a hate crime, or take it out of proportion, and in effect penalize a police department or city government that is trying to do the right thing by reporting incidents based on bias," the official said.

Race-related crimes top list

A 1990 federal law that required hate crime statistics be collected led some police departments to begin reporting hate crimes, within six categories, as early as 1992.

Hate crimes are listed in annual FBI crime reports based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or national origin, disability or multi-causes of bias.

In 1998, the most recent year that hate crime statistics are available, 7,755 hate crimes were reported throughout the United States.

Fifty-eight percent of those crimes were based on race, and crimes involving anti-black incidents were four times greater than crimes involving anti- Caucasian incidents.

Other hate crimes reported during that period were 1,390 based on religious bias, 1,260 involving sexual orientation, 654 regarding ethnicity or national origin, 25 complaints involving the disabled, and five cases within the multiple categories of bias.

While police agencies have gradually increased their reporting of hate crimes in the past decade, it is believed that the number of such crimes is considerably higher.

"It reminds me of reporting rapes back in the 1970's," said one police executive. "In many cases, victims are embarrassed or afraid to say they were victims of bias."

Additional training required

Following Wednesday's meeting with Reno and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, some police executives said they agreed with federal officials that the issue must be addressed. It was agreed that police officials required additional training to ensure they better identify and report hate crimes.

Sometimes, officials said, desk officers who complete reports could be unfamiliar with a specific neighborhood. Therefore, the individual could report the murder of a black man in an Asian community, for example, as a homicide without checking to determine whether race was a motive for the killing.

Also, officials said some smaller police departments lack sufficient staff to provide the detailed reporting required to identify hate crimes.

"We were here to discuss hate crimes legislation, and what the federal government can do to assist state and local law enforcement in not only enforcing hate crimes laws, but to help us identify and encourage the reporting and appropriate prosecution of hate crimes across the United States," Robert Olson, Minneapolis police chief, said.

Olson is president of the Police Executive Research Foundation.

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WhiteHouse.gov: Conference on Hate Crimes
Letter From the Attorney General: Hate Crimes
U.S. Dept. of Justice: Hateful Acts Hurt Kids
Human Rights Campaign
FBI's Uniform Crime Reports - Hate Crime Statistics
ReligiousTolerance.com: Hate crime legislation
Police Executive Research Forum

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