Lawmakers are considering a measure that would redefine a reported hate crime as any reported incident that might be motivated by bias or prejudice. Currently, an incident is only reported as a hate crime if it results in a criminal charge.
Michael Golojuch Jr. with Pride at Work Hawaiʻi has been pushing for more accountability and recorded data regarding hate crimes for several years. As of right now, he says there's not an accurate representation of the number of hate crimes committed.
“After a hate crime has been perpetrated, unless they catch the perp, prosecute and then go to trial and they actually use the enhanced sentencing, nothing gets transmitted up to the FBI,” Golojuch said. “If they catch the perp and they do a plea deal, it's not considered a hate crime.”
“We want to be able to track it. Without this data, we can't track anything. We don't know how big the problem is or how bad the problem is until we actually have this data.”
Golojuch emphasized that this means the reported data from the FBI is not an accurate representation of the actual number of hate crimes committed.
Mark Tom from the state Department of the Attorney General said that the department is moving to a new National Incident-Based Reporting system, which he noted includes hate crime statistics in its system.
This new system would allow data to be compared annually, as well as statistics across different states.
But Golujuch said that although he's happy to hear they're moving to a better system, it won't be of much use if there’s no recorded data to put into it.
Opponents of the bill wrote they’re worried the “overly broad” definition of what is considered a hate crime could lead to the over-reporting of incidents.
The bill passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be heard next by the full floor.
