Reported hate crimes drop after agency participation plummets

Hate crime reporting dropped in 2021 compared with 2020, the FBI announced on Monday, though the data is likely skewed because thousands of police departments did not report their numbers.

In 2021, enforcement agencies reported 7,262 hate crimes to the federal government, down from 8,263 in 2020. But just 63 percent of police departments submitted their data in 2021, compared with 82 percent in 2020.

The Justice Department acknowledged the drop in participation, blaming the transition to a new reporting system, known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

“As a result of the shift to NIBRS-only data collection, law enforcement agency participation in submitting all crime statistics, including hate crimes, fell significantly from 2020 to 2021,” the department said in a statement. “Law enforcement agencies that did not transition to reporting crime data through NIBRS were not able to submit hate crime statistics to the FBI.” This meant that data from some states and “several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies” was not included in the 2021 report.

The new data collection system “collects significantly more detailed data for each individual criminal incident,” according to the Justice Department — though that’s only the case when agencies report such incidents. The department says the government has been working to facilitate agencies’ switch to NIBRS since 2016, offering over $120 million in grants to support the transition.

Even with the dip in reporting, 2021 saw an increase in hate crimes targeting people for their sexual orientation, up from 1,110 in 2020 to 1,132 in 2021. Race and ethnicity was still the largest motivation for hate crimes reported in 2021.

“The Justice Department continues to work with the nation’s law enforcement agencies to increase the reporting of hate crime statistics to the FBI to ensure we have the data to help accurately identify and prevent hate crimes,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. “No one in this country should be forced to live their life in fear of being attacked because of what they look like, whom they love, or where they worship. The department will continue to use all of the tools and resources at our disposal to stand up to bias-motivated violence in our communities.”