News City Auditor Releases Hate Crime Report
posted by on August 5 at 16:25 PM
Following a rash of high-profile hate crime attacks around Seattle last year—some of which drew complaints about the police department’s response to the incidents—council members Nick Licata, Sally Clark and Tom Rasmussen asked the City Auditor to assess the city’s handling of bias crimes.
As we’ve reported on Slog, hate crimes appear to be on the rise in Seattle, but according to the Auditor’s report, the city’s doing a fair job of handling the unfortunately growing caseload.
From 2006 to 2007, hate crimes in Seattle nearly doubled, jumping from 27 reported cases in ‘06 to 52 cases in ‘07. The majority of Seattle’s hate crimes occurred in Downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill, although there were also a number of incidents in the Ballard area. Only the Magnolia and Haller Lake neghborhoods had no reported incidents.
While the city hasn’t yet found an effective way to prevent incidents from occurring, the report does commend Seattle and Washington State for having some of the most comprehensive hate crime laws in the nation. However, not every hate crime case is making it to court.
According to the Auditor’s report, the city needs to better track data on hate crimes. For instance, several cases weren’t referred to prosecutors because they’d been misfiled at a police precinct and were not forwarded on to the department’s bias crimes liason. The Auditor’s report also cites SPD’s new computerized report system as a problematic, complicating factor in tracking cases and recommends officers receive additional training so they can more readily recognize bias crimes.
City council members will be meeting with police department officials in the next few weeks to discuss the report.
I'm personally more worried about hate crimes by people obsessed with charging us for plastic bags, when we slash their 15 mpg SUV's tires for being hypocrites.
Remember the time that guy got his ass kicked on Capitol Hill for hitting a guys car with a baseball bat. Remember how The Stranger said it was a hate crime cause the douche who got beat was gay. Remember how that wasn't the case and The Stranger never retracted despite the fact they started a shit storm out of it. Remember.
USS SPAGHETTI LEE
Despite the missteps, it sounds like the city is taking these cases pretty seriously to me. Assaults, even serious ones, rarely get followed up on in many cities.
@ 2—Um, no.
The SPD needs to better track data on all crimes. The numbers they currently publish (or used to publish -- to my knowledge, they haven't posted any for any month in 2008 yet) make no sense.
@2,
No, I do remember an incident where a guy allegedly hit a car with his cane and the driver attacked a guy walking with a cane. I remember that the driver was speeding down Olive, driving recklessly, and the speculation that the car was stolen. I also remember that there have apparently been no arrests in the case, pointing to the likelihood that the car was indeed stolen and the cops can't find the violent car thief.
So, yeah, I remember.
speaking as a victim of hate crime on capitol hill, it's my impression that seattle and king county do take this seriously and take much glee in putting these idiots behind bars. king county seems a little more serious about it than seattle does, because they have mike hogan on their side.
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