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NPR Cites Suffolk Police for Inadequate Hate Crime Reporting (AUDIO)

Posted December 3, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Suffolk

Yesterday, National Public Radio had a revealing piece on how hate crime statistics are often underreported, or not reported at all.

NPR focused on hate crime reporting in Suffolk County during the month leading up to the killing of Marcelo Lucero as an example of non-existent hate crime reporting when violence was clearly occurring. In the year leading up to the murder of Marcelo Lucero, the Suffolk County Police Department hadn’t recorded a single hate crime. That figure was later adjusted.

I wonder if Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy was proud to hear that his own county was the exemplar used on the report.

One expert who spoke on the segment – Jack McDevitt, the director of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University, acknowledged the possibility that police knowingly ignore hate crime victims:

It is conceivable that a small town might not have a hate crime in a year. But we’ve had major cities like Detroit or New Orleans report zero for a year, which strains the credibility. And that isn’t victims not coming forward, that’s the police not taking it seriously.

Here is the report:

Tags : hate crime, marcelo lucero, npr, suffolk county police department

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