Item 18 - Resolution in Support of Assembly Bill 485

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Resolution in Support of Assembly Bill 485 March 1, 2022 Page 2 2 4 7 0 threats being made or carried out against a person or property, or becomes an incitement to commit violence it would be classified as a hate crime. Examples may include the distribution of non-threatening racist flyers in a public place; displaying non-threatening anti-gay or lesbian placards at a parade or funeral; writing a letter to the editor ridiculing people with disabilities; painting racist graffiti on a freeway overpass. A hate crime or incident may have occurred if any of the following were present: there was a perception that the victim was targeted because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion etc.; the perpetrator wrote or spoke in a manner that indicated bias; and the date of the incident or crime coincides with a date that is of significance to the victim’s religion, nationality, ethnicity etc. Increase in Hate Crimes In California, the number of hate crime events have fluctuated over the last decade. In the last 10 years, hate crime events have increased by 25.5 percent with 1,060 reported in 2011 and 1,330 reported in 2020. The lowest year for reported hate crime events was 2014 with 758 events. Hate crime events increased 31.0 percent from 1,015 in 2019 to 1,330 in 2020. Hate crime offenses increased 23.9 percent from 1,261 in 2019 to 1,563 in 2020. The number of victims of reported hate crimes increased 23.2 percent from 1,247 in 2019 to 1,536 in 2020. Existing Reporting Requirements and Practices The state is able to collect and analyze these statistics because of California Penal Code Section 13023, which requires the Attorney General to direct local law enforcement agencies to report information relating to hate crimes to the Department of Justice (DOJ), as specified. It also requires DOJ to post that information on a specified internet website on or before July 1 of each year. Although the state publishes this hate crime statistics online, it does not include detailed information by city or local agency. Assembly Bill 485 would further increase transparency and open government by requiring all local law enforcement agencies to post the information sent to the department on their local agency internet website on a monthly basis. The Santa Ana Police Department is one of the few cities in the state that currently posts hate crime related data on the city website. This was in response to direction received at the City Council meeting on April 6, 2021, where Mayor Pro Tem Bacerra and Councilmember Phan presented an item that directed the City Manager to direct Police Department staff to post monthly reports of hate crime-related data on the Santa Ana Police Department website. From January 2020 to December 2021, the Santa Ana Police Department documented 35 Hate Crimes. The Bias-Motivations for these crimes include 13 religious in nature, 15 pertaining to race, ethnicity or national origin and seven (7) pertaining to sexual orientation. Additional information about each particular incident is available at www.santa-ana.org/pd/open-government-and-transparency-initiative/hate- crime-reports.