INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — More than half of Indiana’s police agencies failed to file hate crime reports with the FBI between 2009 and 2014, a trend advocates say is a reason why Indiana needs to pass a hate crimes law.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that 52 percent of Indiana’s 535 police agencies didn’t file hate crimes reports with the FBI in that six-year span.
That’s three times the national average, and the nation’s third-highest percentage of police agencies that didn’t file the voluntary reports.
Indiana is one of five states without hate crimes laws. Indiana’s Senate approved hate crimes legislation earlier this year, but the House never acted on that proposal.
Proponents of that legislation say the state’s incomplete reporting is one reason Indiana needs such a law.