Report Hate In Spokane
What is this report
Human Rights Spokane believes hate-motivated crimes and incidents create distrust and harm our communities. We want to document these occurrences to create a community record of hate-motivated crimes and incidents in Spokane County, WA.
Collected information will be used to support and coordinate educational, programmatic, and awareness activities of HRS along with improving response and prevention efforts to hate in our community.
You may file a report anonymously or provide your name. If you provide your name and contact information, we will reach out to you.
If you are interested in promoting this form, see our reporting tool kit for graphics and information.
These reports are confidential and not connected to law enforcement. If you are a victim of a hate crime and want police to respond, call 911.
Report Objectives
There are four core objectives related to this project.
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Create a community record of hate crimes and incidents
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Develop reports of crimes and incidents to share with the public
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Use collected information to support and coordinate educational, programmatic, and awareness activities along with improving response and prevention efforts to hate in our community
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Provide resources to individuals who choose to be contacted by a trained responder.
Hate Crime vs Hate Incident – The Difference
In 2019, Washington State changed the malicious harassment law to a hate crime offense law. A person is guilty of a hate crime offense if they commit one of the following acts because of their perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or mental, physical or sensory disability:
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Causes physical injury to the victim or another person;
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Causes physical damage to or destruction of the property of the victim or another person;
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Threatens a specific person or group of people and places that person, or members of the specific group of persons, in reasonable fear of harm to person or property.
A hate incident is a non-criminal action committed against a person or property, the motive for which is based in whole or in part upon the same characteristics mentioned above. Because they are non-criminal in nature, police are limited in their ability to be involved.
Hate incidents often go undocumented. The Report Hate website provides a place where these incidents along with hate crimes can be captured. By collecting and sharing this information, communities can be better informed about the impact of hate in Spokane.
Report Hate in Spokane is partially funded through a generous grant provided by the Pride Foundation.