Press Releases

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), author of the bipartisan Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, which was signed into law in 2021, today issued the following statement on the FBI’s release of 2021 hate crime statistics compiled through the outdated Summary Reporting System (SRS) and the newer National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which collects significantly more detailed data for bias crimes:

“The lack of reporting from police departments of their hate crime data in 2021 remains very concerning at a time when what little data we have indicates that hate crimes are still increasing. The release of supplemental data by the FBI this week was a cry for help.

“I wrote the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act to improve coordination between law enforcement at every level in responding to hate crimes. Congress passed this law in part to accelerate and fund adoption of the much-improved NIBRS reporting system by state and local law enforcement. That transition is proceeding much too slowly, and this failure to update reporting systems means we have a very incomplete picture of hate crimes in the United States. Until that situation is improved, policymakers will not have the information we need, and law enforcement will lack the improved data this law was intended to provide to fight anti-AAPI hate, anti-Semitism, and white supremacist violence.

“It was the clear intent of Congress that every law enforcement division in this country should report hate crimes through NIBRS. Failure to make this transition should prompt Congress to revisit the issue with additional legislation, including mandating NIBRS adoption if necessary.”