Hate Crimes In Charlotte Metro: FBI Report Shows Decrease

CHARLOTTE, NC — New FBI data shows a slight decrease in hate crimes in 2018 compared with 2017. The law enforcement agency recently published its “Hate Crimes Statistics” report, finding that the reported number of hate crimes in the United States decreased slightly from 7,175 incidents in 2017 to 7,120 in 2018.

Charlotte aligned with the nationwide trend and saw fewer hate crimes reported in 2018.

Whether fewer hate crimes were reported to police in 2018 than 2017 is difficult to ascertain because 110 fewer law enforcement agencies participated in the program overall compared with the previous year.

In 2018, 16,039 agencies participated in the report; however, only 2,026 submitted incident reports about hate crimes. The remaining agencies reported no hate crimes to the FBI.

In North Carolina, 531 law enforcement agencies participated in the program during 2018, with 42 reporting incidents of hate crimes. In total, the agencies reported 140 hate crimes in statewide to the FBI, an increase from the 166 hate crimes documented throughout the state in 2017.

In Charlotte, 24 hate crimes were reported for a population of 931,235. Of the reported hate crimes, 13 of the incidents were targeted because of race, six because of religion, four because of sexual orientation and one because of disability.

According to the FBI, a majority of the victims nationally (59.6 percent) were targeted because of a bias toward race, ethnicity or ancestry. The second most common reason a victim was targeted was because of religion (18.7 percent), followed by sexual orientation (15.8 percent), gender identity (2.2 percent), disability (2.1 percent) and gender (0.7 percent), according to the statistics.

The FBI says 53.6 percent of the known offenders were white, 24 percent were black or African American, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders. The percentages for white and black or African American known offenders both increased by about 3 percent from 2017. According to the FBI, a “known offender” does not imply that a suspect’s identity is known but that “some aspect of the suspect was identified.”

“Before a community addresses hate- and bias-motivated crimes, all stakeholders need to understand the local problem,” the U.S. Department of Justice advises. “The best assessment method is the SARA model: scanning for the problems, analyzing the facts, responding to reduce the problems, and assessing the outcome of the response.”

The Department of Justice also provides a list of tips to help ensure local law enforcement is partnered with the community in a joint mission to stop hate crimes from happening.

• Network with others in the community and ask who they recommend including in the partnership.
• Research and understand how involved your local law enforcement agency is with community policing, and identify a liaison officer at your local law enforcement agency who might serve as a point of contact.
• Reach out to the chief of police or sheriff, as well as any other key personnel you would like to participate in the partnership.
• Focus on solutions rather than problems when meeting with your local chief or police or sheriff.

Hate crimes are currently the highest investigative priority of the FBI’s civil rights program, according to the agency.