Post by Logan on Jun 5, 2016 1:38:44 GMT -6
INDIANAPOLIS — More than half of Indiana’s police agencies failed to file hate crime reports with the FBI between 2009 and 2014, a trend advocates say is troubling and one reason why state lawmakers need to change the state’s standing as one of five states without a hate crime law.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that 281 of Indiana’s 535 police agencies, or 52 percent, were among more than 2,700 agencies in the U.S. that didn’t file hate crime reports in that six-year span. The no-response rate for Indiana is three times the national no-response average of 17 percent — and the third-highest percentage in the U.S. of police departments that didn’t file the voluntary reports, behind only Louisiana and Mississippi.
Chris Paulsen, the campaign manager for the gay rights group Freedom Indiana, said crimes against LGBT residents, as well as people targeted because of their religion, ethnicity and other bias factors, go unreported every year in Indiana.
“I’m not surprised they’re not reporting because what would they report?” Paulsen said of the AP’s findings. “There are all kinds of hate crimes that go unreported because there’s no mechanism for reporting them.”
Read more: www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/indiana/half-of-indiana-police-don-t-report-hate-crimes-data/article_d468dd8b-578e-51e3-b119-abe73729a2f7.html
An analysis by The Associated Press found that 281 of Indiana’s 535 police agencies, or 52 percent, were among more than 2,700 agencies in the U.S. that didn’t file hate crime reports in that six-year span. The no-response rate for Indiana is three times the national no-response average of 17 percent — and the third-highest percentage in the U.S. of police departments that didn’t file the voluntary reports, behind only Louisiana and Mississippi.
Chris Paulsen, the campaign manager for the gay rights group Freedom Indiana, said crimes against LGBT residents, as well as people targeted because of their religion, ethnicity and other bias factors, go unreported every year in Indiana.
“I’m not surprised they’re not reporting because what would they report?” Paulsen said of the AP’s findings. “There are all kinds of hate crimes that go unreported because there’s no mechanism for reporting them.”
Read more: www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/indiana/half-of-indiana-police-don-t-report-hate-crimes-data/article_d468dd8b-578e-51e3-b119-abe73729a2f7.html