Less than 4 percent of Indiana law-enforcement agencies have reported bias and hate crimes as required under a state law that took effect six months ago.
The law, which went into effect July 1, requires law-enforcement agencies to submit two reports annually to the Indiana Central Repository, listing the number of bias-motivated crimes within their jurisdictions.
But only 49 of the 1,500 law-enforcement agencies complied. Some said the non-compliance was unintentional.
“To file a report, we wouldn’t be able to file an accurate one because we don’t keep track of [bias crimes],” Whitley County Sheriff Michael Schrader said. “We haven’t got to that point yet.”
Schrader said his department doesn’t track bias crimes because they are so rare.
The law, authored by Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis), defines a bias crime as intentionally targeting someone of a different “creed, color, disability, national origin, race, religion or sexual orientation” than the offender.
