King County Hate Crimes Trend Higher In 2020

SEATTLE, WA — The number of hate crimes reported this year in King County has outpaced 2018 and 2019, due in large part to more cases originating in Seattle, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

In a news conference Monday, prosecutors said the local data runs parallel with trends seen nationally, as seen in an annual report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"The FBI statistics release also said that Seattle, or the Seattle area, is one of the places where the most fileable hate crimes occur," said David Bannick, a deputy prosecuting attorney. "I think the numbers that King County, or the Seattle area, [are] maybe third or fourth in the nation. That is something that is a really significant number to us that we've been talking and thinking about a lot."

King County hate crime cases by the numbers:

• 2018: 30
• 2019: 38
• 2020 (YTD): 51

Bannick said several factors come into play when it comes to hate crime statistics in Puget Sound, including that the Seattle Police Department employs a detective solely to investigate such cases, which leads to more incidents making their way through the court system.

"The Seattle Police Department prioritizes investigating these crimes," Bannick said. "We have the best data for patterns on our Seattle cases because the Seattle Police Department actually tracks the type of victim that is most targeted for hate crimes."

Despite that, far more cases may slip through the cracks.

"There's likely dozens of hate crimes that go unreported or never make it to us," Bannick said. "That's why one of our biggest priorities this year...is really working on outreach."

A new area of concern this year, prosecutors said, is bias crimes against Asian-American people related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Due to COVID, we have seen hate crime cases come in against Asian-Americans," said Leandra Craft, a deputy prosecuting attorney. "Obviously, there have been hate crimes reported before against Asian-Americans, but we haven't seen hate crime cases where [they] are targeted because of maybe someone's fear of COVID. That is a new fact pattern that hasn't happened until 2020."

Another complicating factor related to the pandemic is a lack of resources available to help those struggling with mental health.

"One really big pattern that we're seeing is that a lot of the offenders of hate crimes are people who have mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and typically...are not getting help because of COVID."

Prosecutors said a central tenant moving forward is education and letting people know how to seek help if they are victimized.

"We think that the more people that we can help teach about what hate crimes are, the fact that certain conduct takes something from a misdemeanor into a felony hate crime, the more we're going to be able to catch all these incidents that happen and file charges," Bannick said.