ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida has more hate groups than nearly every other state, but FBI records reveal fewer than 10 percent of the state’s law enforcement agencies report hate crimes to federal investigations, an issue that has prompted scrutiny from local activists and federal officials.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit that tracks hate groups, Florida is home to 63 hate groups, a dozen of them in Central Florida.
FBI records show that there were 72 hate crimes in Florida in 2015, the most recent year for which data is available. The records also show that 38 of the state’s 387 law enforcement agencies reported hate crimes to the feds.
“We really don’t have a clear picture of how many hate crimes actually exist,” said Ryan Lenz, the editor of SPLC’s Hatewatch blog. “If we don’t know what problem we have, there’s no way for us to address it at all.”
The Orlando Police Department, the Daytona Beach Police Department and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office are just a few of the Central Florida agencies that records show didn’t submit hate crime data to the F.B.I. in 2015.
The Orlando Police Department said it investigated five hate crimes in 2015 and sent that number to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE confirmed it reported the number to the F.B.I., but the number doesn’t appear on FBI records.
The Daytona Beach Police Department said it didn’t have any hate crimes to report in 2015. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to an inquiry.
“It’s disheartening to hear,” said Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the LGBT Center of Central Florida. “If they’re not reported up there, it’s almost as if they didn’t exist.”
But the 349 Florida law enforcement agencies that didn’t report hate crime data to the FBI didn’t break the law because there isn’t one that requires agencies to report hate crimes to the feds.
Rep. Don Beyer, D.-Va., who declined an interview request for the story, introduced a bill last year that would require any law enforcement agency that receives federal funds to report hate crimes to the FBI. The bill is still in committee.
Cox Media Group
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