[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 37 (Monday, September 18, 2000)]
[Pages 2063-2064]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Memorandum on Improving Hate Crimes Reporting
September 13, 2000
Memorandum for the Attorney General
Subject: Improving Hate Crimes Reporting
Unfortunately, each year our country experiences a number of hate
crimes. We have all heard about the heinous incidents such as the
dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas, in June 1998. In
October of that same year, Mathew Shepard, a gay college student, died
after being beaten and tied to a fence. In July 1999, Benjamin Smith
went on a racially motivated shooting spree in Illinois and Indiana. At
the end of this rampage fueled by hate, Ricky Byrdsong, an African
American who was a former basketball coach at Northwestern University,
and Won-Joon Yoon, a Korean graduate student at Indiana University, were
killed, and eight others were wounded. In August 1999, Joseph Ileto, an
Asian American and U.S. postal worker, died at the hands of a gunman in
Los Angeles. This same gunman also injured five persons, including three
children, at a Jewish community center. Finally, this year there were
two rampages in Pennsylvania in which several people of various ethnic,
racial, and religious backgrounds were killed or injured. These crimes
affect the entire Nation, the communities in which they occur, and the
victims and their families in ways fundamentally different from other
crimes. People are targeted simply because of who they are--whether it
is because of their race, religion, color, sexual orientation, gender,
or disability.
During my Administration, we have worked hard to fight hate crimes.
I established the National Church Arson Task Force in June 1996 to
oversee the investigation and prosecution of arson at houses of worship
around the country. I held the first-ever White House Conference on Hate
Crimes in November 1997. At the conference, I announced that the
Department of Justice would establish Hate Crimes Working Groups in the
U.S. Attorneys' districts across the country. These working groups,
essentially Federal-State-local partnerships, typically include
representation from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), State and local law enforcement and prosecutors'
offices, educators, and community groups. The groups work to ensure
close coordination on hate crimes investigations and prosecutions among
responsible law enforcement agencies; promote training of police,
investigators, and prosecutors in identifying and dealing with hate
crimes; encourage victims to report hate crimes; and educate the public
about the harm they cause. In April of this year, I held a strategy
session with some representatives of these Hate Crimes Working Groups at
which law enforcement officials--at the Federal, State, and local
levels--reported that they coordinate closely on hate crimes
investigations and prosecutions.
In 1998, the last year for which FBI figures are available, 7,755
hate crimes were reported--nearly one hate crime every hour of every
day. Of these hate crimes reported, 56 percent were motivated by race,
18 percent by religion, and 16 percent by sexual orientation. However,
there was certainly an underreporting of hate crimes.
Today, I announced a new report, ``Improving the Quality and
Accuracy of Bias Crime Statistics Nationally: An Assessment of the First
Ten Years of Bias Crime Data Collection,'' which was funded by the
Department of Justice. This report noted that over 10,000 city, county,
and State law enforcement agencies now participate in the FBI's Uniform
Crime Reporting (UCR) Hate Crime Data Collection Program. Although 83
percent of participating agencies reported that no hate crimes had
occurred in their jurisdiction during the previous year, follow-up
surveys with line officers showed that 31 percent of those agencies had
investigated one or more incidents of hate crimes. These data indicate a
disconnect between what line officers believe are hate crimes and what
is reported to the FBI. Extrapolating from this data, the report
estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 additional agencies may have
encountered hate crimes that were not reported to the national program.
In addition, the report noted that 85 percent of law enforcement
officers responding to a survey believed that hate-motivated crimes are
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more serious than similar crimes that are not motivated by bias.
Based on the results of this report, I hereby direct the Department
of Justice to work with State and local law enforcement agencies, as
well as relevant law enforcement organizations, to come up with a plan
to improve hate crimes reporting, within 120 days. I understand that the
Department already plans to meet with representatives of State and local
law enforcement organizations later this month. In addition to this
meeting, the Department should consider in its plan whether various
actions, such as the following, would improve hate crimes reporting:
<bullet> Pilot programs in jurisdictions where law enforcement
agencies reported zero incidents of hate crimes;
<bullet> A study to analyze the role that juvenile offenders play in
the number of hate crimes committed each year;
<bullet> Training sessions by Federal law enforcement on identifying
and reporting hate crimes; and
<bullet> Activities by the U.S. Attorney Hate Crimes Working Groups
to work with community groups and local law enforcement to
improve hate crimes reporting in their areas, including
helping to bring more victims forward to the police.
In carrying out these activities, I know that you will continue your
leadership on fighting and preventing hate crimes in order to make this
country a safer place for all Americans.
William J. Clinton