Hirono, Collins introduce legislation to mandate credible hate crime reporting

US Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaiʻi and Susan Collins of Maine have introduced the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act, a bipartisan legislative effort intended to strengthen the accuracy of hate crime reporting nationwide.

Companion legislation was also introduced in the US House of Representatives by Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia Don Bacon of Nebraska.

Currently, crime reporting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation is voluntary. According to data released regarding 2024, less than 16,500 of the more than 19,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States reported their statistics to the federal government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2024 Hate Crimes Statistics report documented 11,679 hate crime incidents involving more than 13,768 victims. This figure represents the second-highest number of hate crimes recorded in a single year. Despite these numbers, the bureau has acknowledged that the data is likely underreported. More than 80% of agencies that submitted data reported zero hate crimes, and thousands of jurisdictions did not report any data.

The proposed legislation would require the Department of Justice to develop a system to assess whether local jurisdictions are reporting credible data on hate crimes. Localities found to be failing in reporting credible data, or failing to provide data entirely, would be required to improve their reporting systems and conduct community education initiatives to maintain eligibility for specific federal funding allocations.

“As hate-based crimes and incidents surge in our country, this legislation is a step toward better combatting these incidents by improving the credibility of hate crime reporting,” Hirono said. “All members of our communities deserve to feel safe, regardless of their background. By strengthening reporting and tracking of these incidents, we can better work to prevent these events from taking place and keep our communities safe. Violence and hatred have no place in our country, and I will continue to do everything I can to prevent hate crimes and hold those responsible for these acts accountable.”

Various advocacy organizations highlighted statistics regarding specific racial and religious groups to underscore the need for better data collection.

Sim Singh Attariwala, director of the Anti-Hate Program at the Asian American Justice Center, noted that anti-Asian hate crimes in 2024 remained nearly triple the pre-pandemic average.

“Too many incidents never enter official statistics because law‑enforcement agencies fail to report them, leaving communities without the visibility or support they deserve,” Attariwala said.

Data regarding religiously motivated crimes also shows significant numbers. Ted Deutch, chief executive officer of the American Jewish Committee, pointed to the federal data regarding the Jewish community.

“The FBI’s most recent data reports 1,938 antisemitic incidents, accounting for 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes,” Deutch said. “Yet these figures capture only a fraction of reality, as hate crimes are widely underreported.”

Sakira Cook, federal policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that while the bureau has reported increasing levels of hate violence, it is most frequently directed against Black people.

“Voluntary hate crime reporting has not worked,” Cook said. “This bipartisan legislation, which conditions federal funding on credible hate crime reporting, will help ensure more complete data and focus law enforcement attention and resources on the principal targets of bias-motivated criminal activity – Black and Brown people and other marginalized communities.”

The full text of the legislation is available by clicking here.