New crime data from the Washington Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association found hate crime incidents statewide have decreased from 576 in 2023 to 477 incidents last year.

WASPC collects and publishes annual crime data from police departments statewide, including hate crime and bias-motivated incidents. The agency reported 746 bias-motivated offenses in 2023 compared to 593 offenses last year.

Statewide, the 2024 report found bias incidents regarding race, sexual orientation, and religion being some of the highest reported bias categories. 353 incidents involved race/ ethnicity/ ancestry, 159 incidents involved sexual orientation, and 96 incidents involved religion.

By law, since 1993, police officers are required to undergo hate crime training as part of the basic law enforcement academy, conducted at the Criminal Justice Training Commission, which both trains and certifies police officers. A public records request to CJTC found police recruits receive one hour of hate crime training during a 720-hour basic law enforcement academy.

In Kitsap County, public records requests to five police departments found varying levels of in-service training officers may undergo regarding hate crime offenses at their respective departments.

The Bainbridge Island Police Department and Port Orchard Police Department offer a one-hour annual refresher training through training partner Lexipol. Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Bremerton Police Department both offer periodic daily training bulletins on hate crimes. Poulsbo is the only department that doesn’t offer additional hate crime training.

Bremerton police chief Tom Wolfe shared the importance of reporting hate crimes.

“I would want readers to know that we take all crime, especially hate crimes, seriously and want to see perpetrators brought to justice. Many times, people are not aware of the elements of a hate crime that we have to prove for the prosecutor,” he said.

A separate public records request found the same five law enforcement agencies have hate crime policies that outline responsibilities of how police should respond to hate crime incidents.

Kitsap County prosecuting attorney Chad Enright described some of the differences between a bias incident and a hate crime.

“So the first thing the prosecutor is going to do is we need to see what is the underlying crime, and so we need to have an assault, we need to have damaged property, or we need to have a threat. We need to have one of those three things, or it’s not a hate crime,” he said.

Enright said a common incident his office investigates is an assault. In order to successfully prosecute the case as a hate crime, they have to prove the person committed the crime due to choosing a victim based on a protected class such as sexual orientation, race or religion.

“Usually that type of evidence is something that the suspect has said, language that they’ve used, something that they have, something that they have asserted, that gives us an idea of their motivation,” he said.

Enright said all hate crimes are bias incidents, but not all bias incidents rise to the level of a hate crime. Washington state’s hate crime statute was recently updated in an effort to better define a hate crime offense.

Some 911 agencies also screen calls to identify bias-motivated factors as part of the call-taking process. However, a public records request to CENCOM, which handles emergency 911 services for Kitsap County, found the agency doesn’t have a policy or have emergency call-takers screen calls specifically for these elements.

Kitsap County Sheriff John Gese shared his support for community members to report hate crime incidents to local law enforcement.

“If people feel that they’ve been victims of any crime, we would like them to report it. But if they feel they’re a victim of a hate crime, then absolutely we want them to report that. We want them to feel comfortable coming forward and know that we will take it seriously,” he said.

Miri Cypers with the Anti-Defamation League, which supports community members reporting bias and hate crime incidents, provided Kitsap Daily News with the following statement:

“Hate crimes don’t just target individuals – they send a message of fear to entire communities. That’s why it’s so critical that victims and witnesses report incidents when they occur,” she said. “Every report helps ensure accountability and gives law enforcement and community leaders the information they need to respond. At the same time, additional training for law enforcement on hate crimes strengthens investigations, improves data collection, and builds trust with communities most affected by bias and bigotry.”