In Bias Crime Reporting, Accurate Data is Key

Peter Madsen’s feature story from last week, “Bias in Our Backyard,” explored the numbers around bias crimes in our area, and the state, in the five-year period since state and local authorities began collecting such data. The numbers available, from the years 2020-2023, were quite striking, with marked increases in the number of bias crimes reported year over year. But as Madsen began to explore the data provided by local police, including the Bend Police Department, and then also explored data collected statewide, a few interesting things emerged: One, that reporting can be spotty and subjective. Cops and district attorneys have a lot of discretion when it comes to reporting something as a crime that targets people for their identity. What’s more, some people affected may fear reporting the crimes at all. About 42% of violent bias crimes are never reported, a figure Madsen cited from the U.S. Department of Justice. Authorities can cite that figure because of the number of people who call into the DOJ’s Bias Response Hotline but then never actually file a report.

Another interesting facet of the story: numbers can vary widely. While all Oregon law enforcement agencies are required to report bias crimes to the Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting program, not everyone does so consistently. In 2023, 20 law enforcement agencies in Oregon reported no data at all — largely, a UCR report stated, due to a refusal to upgrade to the necessary software. Some of the counties that reported low numbers, or no reporting, include those in our backyard, including Crook, Harney and Wheeler counties. As the story pointed out, having gaps in data — or seeing some agencies decline to participate at all — makes it hard for governments to understand, and then act upon, the prevalence of crimes that target people due to their identities.

Doing a story like this is important — not entirely to highlight how “racist” or “bigoted” a community is — though those issues did make themselves clear throughout the reporting. In spite of a recent backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the federal level (which have had ripples even the way our local governments do business), preventing and addressing crimes happening in our communities should still be a priority.

When George Floyd was killed by police in 2020, it set off a chain reaction across the United States. People wanted more done to address systemic racism in policing, and systemic racism in society in general. In Oregon, one of the ways our government addressed that was by mandating that law enforcement agencies begin tracking bias crimes. To address a problem, we need to understand the problem thoroughly. Five years into the effort of tracking that data, it’s clear that the data needs to be even better tracked, and discrepancies in reporting need to be addressed.

These crimes may happen to individuals, but they affect entire communities. In this epoch of American history, when rhetoric around illegal — and even legal — immigration is causing a chilling effect for communities with large populations of immigrants; when DEI is considered a dirty word among some; when local communities of color are canceling events out of fear of backlash, accurate reporting about the bias incidents in local communities can help authorities engage in better prevention and intervention efforts. Crime is crime, and the more we know about the nature of it, the better jobs law enforcement and prosecutors can do in addressing it.

This article appears in Source Weekly June 5, 2025.