COUNTYWIDE : Network to Track County Hate Crimes
A cross-section of community leaders met with representatives from the district attorney’s office and local law enforcement agencies Tuesday to discuss plans for starting a network to track hate crimes in the county.
“The network will bring together all of the key people so we can share information on the numbers and types of hate crimes,” said Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. “We also hope to get better cooperation from the community in reporting hate crimes.”
In the past, Kennedy said, there was no central clearinghouse for statistics on local crimes committed because of a person’s race, ethnic background, religion or sexual orientation.
“We’ve been getting questions for a long time about what the level of hate crimes is in Orange County. Is it going up or down and who is being victimized? We have always had to say that we just don’t have a comprehensive system.”
He said the need for such a network was evident most recently during the Gulf War, when there was an increase in hate crimes against Arab-Americans. Kennedy met Tuesday in Santa Ana with officials from 11 law enforcement agencies and 24 community leaders.
The network will compile statistics, share information among the various agencies and work on outreach efforts to prevent hate-related crimes and incidents.
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