California Creates First Hate Crime Database Lets Cops Track Violence Against Minorities, Women
June 4, 2000
By Randy Dotinga
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (APBnews.com) -- State officials are putting the finishing touches on the nation's first hate crime computer database, which will help police track criminals who are motivated by prejudice.
The statewide database, which is scheduled to be up and running by summer's end, will offer an unprecedented amount of information to law enforcement, said Sandra Michioku, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office.
Currently, there is no centralized statewide repository of information about hate crimes. A sheriff's deputy investigating a hate crime in Northern California may have no idea that a similar incident occurred in San Diego, Michioku said.
The database will change that, she said. It will include information about the crimes committed, the suspects and other information such as vehicles spotted at the scene of an attack.
"You might have information on a firebombing, such as a description of what kind of accelerant was used," Michioku said.
Sophisticated suspect sketches
Police officers will be able to create high- tech suspect lineups by filling a computer screen with various mug shots from the database.
California already has a computer database that provides information on stolen cars, criminal records and wanted suspects. But the hate crimes database will be the most elaborate of its kind in the state, Michioku said.
The database will be called HATE -- Hate crime Analysis Tracking & Evaluation.
California allows prosecutors to file extra charges in crimes that target victims because of their race, national origin, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation. The gender provision also covers transsexuals.
Matching hate groups' tech savvy
Hector Jimenez, a San Diego assistant district attorney who runs a hate crime unit, said the database would help law enforcement match the technological expertise of hate groups.
"Those people who advocate that others commit crimes are technologically savvy," he said. "It's time for us in law enforcement to use technology in our efforts to combat intolerance."
Virginia Black, California's first elected female sheriff, is also a fan of the database. She is sheriff of Northern California's Yuba County. "As we in law enforcement know, hate crimes are not perpetuated by people who live next door all the time," she said. "[There] are professional hate crime perpetrators who travel from city to city and site to site across the United States."
The database will allow authorities easy access to information about similar crimes, Black said.
"Currently, if we had a hate crime, we might put out a statewide or nationwide teletype to all law enforcement agencies asking for others who had similar incidents. It's just a much slower, more cumbersome journey to the same point," she said.
High-profile cases
Yuba County, with a population of about 58,000, had only one reported hate crime last year. But Black suspects that more occurred but were not reported.
California has been hit by several high- profile hate crimes in recent years:
Two white supremacist brothers stand accused of killing a gay couple in Northern California. The brothers are awaiting trial. A San Diego man was convicted this year of committing gender-based hate crimes in connection with his random, brutalassaults on five women, including the daughter of the city's police chief. He received a six-year sentence for that attack and several others. In a case that attracted national attention, five white men attacked a black man outside a Memorial Day party two years ago in Santee, a suburb of San Diego. The victim was left paralyzed. One attacker received a 9-year sentence while the other four, who had a lesser involvement, received one-year terms. Last July, someone threw a tear-gas grenade into the crowd at San Diego's annual gay and lesbian pride parade. Dozens of spectators were gassed, as was a marching contingent of parents and young children. No one has been arrested in the case.
In 1998, according to state statistics, 1,750 hate crimes were reported. Of those, 1,134 were motivated by race, 226 by religion and 387 by sexual orientation.
Within those categories, the largest number of attacks came against blacks, Jews and gay men. In three other cases, victims were attacked because of their disability.
The state later added gender to its hate crime statutes. --------------
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