As part of its efforts to deter hate crimes and bias incidents, the city tracks both hate crimes and bias-related incidents.
Hate Crimes
A person is guilty of a hate crime if they maliciously and intentionally commit one of the acts listed below based on the attacker’s perception of a victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or mental, physical or sensory disability.
- Physical assault.
- Threats to a person or group of people that causes the victims to have "reasonable fear" that the attacker will cause physical injury or property damage.
- Damage or destruction of a victim's property.
Bias incidents
Bias incidents are acts of prejudice not criminal in nature and not involving violence, threats or property damage. Threatening words do not constitute a hate crime if it is apparent to the victim that the person does not have the ability to carry out the threat. Bias incidents are still important to report. They have negative impacts on whole communities and deserve to be elevated and understood by the public. Bias incidents include:
- Yelling profanity and insults
- Distributing racist flyers in public places
- Displaying hateful materials on private property
Historical Data