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A new report recommended Maine law enforcement improve training in investigating and tracking hate crimes after researchers found that reported incidents have sharply declined in recent years.
Reports of hate and bias incidents in Maine fell 49 percent between 2008 and 2017, researchers with the Maine Statistical Analysis Center at the University of Southern Maine found in a report published Sunday. From 2008 to 2012, Maine averaged 56 incidents every year, an average that fell to 33 during the next five years, a 42 percent drop, according to the report.
Reports also fell nationally during that period, but at a much lower rate. The findings do not suggest that hate crimes have simply diminished, but rather that Maine authorities may not have properly identified or reported many such incidents during that period, researchers say.
“One of the recommendations that my co-authors Hannah Brintlinger and Jack McDevitt of Northeastern University both maintain is that training on recognizing bias and hate crimes should be an ongoing issue, and not just for new cadets, but for existing officers as well,” said George Shaler, senior research associate and director of the center.
The authors began their study in 2019 with the goal of understanding the number of reported incidents and what happened in each of them, something not commonly tracked across the country. The report found that reports of hate or bias infrequently result in civil or criminal charges, usually because the authorities could not find the suspect, lack of evidence, the victim was not available or did not cooperate, or the incident didn’t fall under state legal criteria.
It’s difficult for researchers to understand how often hate crimes occur because they often go unreported to police, national surveys show. In addition, police have also struggled to recognize and document when crimes have been motivated by hate or bias, something high-profile police officials, such as former FBI Director James Comey, have acknowledged.
Notably, in Maine, two of the 10 largest cities in Maine did not report any hate or bias crimes to the FBI during the study period, according to the report.
In the years since the study period, however, federal data suggest hate crimes are ticking back up nationally. In 2020, the FBI recorded more than 7,750 reported hate crimes in the US, its highest in 12 years, the majority related to racial bias, according to NPR.
In Maine, police are required to document if a crime could be motivated by bias and refer that to the attorney general’s office, which then decides if there is evidence to file a complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act. Local district attorney’s also bring charges.
To conduct its study, the Maine Statistical Analysis Center asked the FBI for information on all hate crimes reported annually to the FBI by local police during the study period, then for data from the Maine attorney general’s office about whether a civil order was filed. The researchers also asked DA’s for information about criminal proceedings.
