Getting a Better Look at Hate Crimes

Type the word “swastika” into the computer and a pattern emerges in an instant: A rash of incidents in which the crooked cross symbols of hate were scrawled or painted on homes, businesses and vehicles over a three-week period in the west San Fernando Valley.

They are incidents that not long ago might have collected dust on some detective’s desk, if they made it that far. No witnesses, no suspects. Next to impossible to solve, would have been the rationale.

But today the incidents and thousands like them, dating back to 1990, are stored in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hate Crime Monitoring System, an online database launched earlier this month. It enables hate crime investigators in each of the department’s 18 divisions to sort through reported crimes and incidents citywide, looking for patterns it previously may not have been possible to see.

“We weren’t getting a clear picture of what was going on,” said Det. Tom King, who monitors the department’s overall response to hate crimes. “That’s changing.”

The database is but one way in which Los Angeles police are aggressively combating hate crimes, a topic of national outrage in the wake of several high-profile incidents, most recently the Midwest shooting spree by white supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith and a federal investigation of two Northern California brothers in connection with the slaying of a gay couple and the arson fires at three Sacramento synagogues.

In addition to keeping better track of the crimes, police are working with academics to develop an improved understanding of who commits them, and why. And increasingly, authorities are making federal cases out of such offenses--literally.

The number of hate crimes and incidents reported to police in Los Angeles peaked in 1996 at 573 and has been seesawing below that figure for the last two years, according to department statistics. So far this year, only the San Fernando Valley area, which typically leads the city in the number of reported hate crimes and incidents, is on a pace to have more crimes reported this year than last.

The LAPD database was designed this spring by Sam Zikry, a civilian employee of the department’s Information Technology Division.

Zikry compiled all the data that had been gathered piecemeal over the years and melded the material into a single database. He then loaded it into the computer program Paradox, which he customized for use by the LAPD.

“Simplicity is what I was after,” Zikry said. “I wanted it to be easy for detectives to use, so they could spend more time out doing what they do.”

The data can be manipulated in myriad ways, with just a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse. It can be searched citywide or within one of the four geographic bureaus that make up the LAPD. It can be searched according to the race of the suspect, race of the victim, location of the crime scene, and perhaps most important, by modus operandi. A search based on MO is the kind that may demonstrate a pattern of crimes and incidents that before may have seemed random.

“Part of being a detective is being a researcher,” said King, of the LAPD’s criminal conspiracy section. “In the old days, detectives used phone books and shoe leather. Now we’re using computers. They’re a lot faster.”

There has also been a push to improve the quality of data being entered into the system. Officers throughout the department have been trained on what constitutes a hate crime or incident, something that previously was often misinterpreted. Reports on hate crimes are scrutinized by a hate crime coordinator in the division where the incident occurred, and by officials higher up the chain of command.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco, who supervises the prosecution of federal hate crimes in Los Angeles, said the new database should be a useful tool.

“People who commit hate crimes are repeat offenders--it’s an escalation of hate,” Gennaco said. “If you can access past incidents where people are suspected of doing even things that are legal, such as distributing racist literature, it can provide potential leads in future cases.”

A hate crime is defined as any criminal act or attempted criminal act directed against a person, group or property based on the victim’s actual or perceived race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender. A hatred incident is a noncriminal act, such as putting racist fliers on parked cars or making verbal threats.

Copies of all LAPD hate crime reports are sent to the district attorney’s Hate Crime Suppression Unit, the California Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, for possible federal prosecution. In some cases, offenses that would be misdemeanors in state court can be prosecuted as felonies in federal court.

Karen Umemoto, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and visiting scholar at UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, is studying race-based hate crimes and incidents in Los Angeles County between 1994 and 1998. Based on data provided by the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies throughout the county, Umemoto and colleagues are using computers to map the crimes.

The study’s preliminary findings show that high concentrations of crimes, or “clusters,” occur primarily in areas where a minority group moves into a neighborhood and is viewed with suspicion or contempt by some members of the group already there.

Friction also occurs when two or more racial groups compete for jobs, be they in the traditional marketplace or on the street corner selling drugs.

Umemoto said the researchers have identified clusters in the Antelope Valley, Sunland-Tujunga and the northwest San Fernando Valley, all of which were the sites of incidents believed to involve suspects with white supremacist ideology committing crimes against minorities.

Other clusters, in which Latinos with gang affiliations have targeted African Americans, have appeared in Hawaiian Gardens, Harbor Gateway and parts of eastern Los Angeles County. The study found that in Watts the reverse was true, with African Americans with gang ties targeting Latinos.