Hate Crimes
The department is an inter-
nationally recognized leader on best
practices as it relates to hate and bias
crime reporting. The department
expanded the hate and bias crime
reporting policy to include hate
incidents. This follows national
standards of promoting and protecting
civil rights in communities by imple-
menting key recommendations from
the Action Agenda for Community
Organizations and Law Enforcement to
Enhance the Response to Hate Crimes.
This new reporting policy ensures
that hate incidents are captured by
reporting processes as well as hate
crimes. This is an important shift
due to cases where non-criminal
hate incidents can cause significant
community harm. The department has
developed a training curriculum that
has been presented on the national
stage for other agencies to replicate.
Police Chief Will Johnson, through his
partnership with
the International
Association of
Chiefs of Police
(IACP) and
the Lawyers’
Committee
for Civil Rights
Under Law,
continues to
advocate on
behalf of all
victims and
bolster the country’s conversation on
this important topic.
In August, the department
responded to multiple incidents
of hateful graffiti in East Arlington.
Investigators quickly narrowed the
investigation down to one suspect.
Detectives filed a hate crimes
enhancement based upon the racial
slurs that were used.
In October, Police Chief Will
Johnson traveled to Washington D.C.
to attend the 10-year anniversary of the
Shepard/Byrd Hate Crime Prevention
Act Forum. During this event, the
Department of Justice expressed
interest in adopting Arlington’s training
program that was developed in 2019.
All sworn officers received 8-hours
of hate crimes and incidents training
during last year’s training cycle.
2019 Hate Crimes Totals
Hate Crimes by Month
Month
# Disposition
Case Offenses by Bias Motivation
Bias
# Motivation
Total by Offense
Month
Hate Incidents by Month
# Offense
Month
# per Month
Jan 1 Anti-Black 9 Agg Assault DW 5 Apr 2
Mar 1 Anti-Gay (Male) 1 Assault 4 Jun 3
Apr 1 Criminal
Mischief 1 1
1 1 Jul Jun Anti-Homosexual
(Gay & Lesb) Aug 2
Jul 1 2 Sep 2
1 1 Graffiti Aug Anti-Other
Ethnic Origin Harassment 1 Oct 5
Sep 5 Anti-Hispanic 2 Terroristic Threat 2 Nov 1
Nov 1 1 Dec 9
4 2 Burglary Dec Anti-Asian/
Pacific Islander Total 16 Total 16 Total 16 Total 25
18
| 2019 Annual Report