As part of an ongoing commitment to improve hate crimes reporting and data collection, the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) convened a symposium at its headquarters in Clarksburg, West Virginia, with state and local law enforcement partners responsible for crime data collection, including hate crimes data.
Representatives from FBI’s CJIS, Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, the Office of Justice Programs, and Department leadership offices, as well as over 100 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) programs from over 40 states and the District of Columbia met and discussed the importance of accurate hate crimes reporting. The symposium featured discussions and presentations addressing various aspects of hate crime data, including its collection, analysis, and interpretation. Participants also explored ways to improve reporting mechanisms, better support victims, and implement preventive measures to counter hate-motivated actions.
The FBI’s UCR Program generates reliable statistics for use in law enforcement and includes data from more than 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, Tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Agencies participate voluntarily and submit their crime data either through a state UCR program or directly to the FBI’s UCR program.
The Justice Department, alongside the FBI, is committed to working with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to improve the collection of hate crime statistics to the FBI and will continue to use every tool and resource available to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms. The meeting fostered a deeper understanding of the importance of hate crimes data collection for communities and law enforcement.
