ddressing hate crimesmatthew sheppard, a gay student in laramie, wyoming; the shooting rampage...

MonographMonograph

H A T E C R I M E S S E R I E S

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Assistance

ADDRESSING HATE CRIMESSIX INITIATIVES THAT ARE ENHANCING

THE EFFORTS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

PRACTITIONERS



PRACTITIONERS

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Justice Programs

810 Seventh Street NW.Washington, DC 20531

Janet RenoAttorney General

Daniel MarcusActing Associate Attorney General

Laurie RobinsonAssistant Attorney General

Noël BrennanDeputy Assistant Attorney General

Nancy E. GistDirector, Bureau of Justice Assistance

Office of Justice ProgramsWorld Wide Web Home Page

www.ojp.usdoj.gov

Bureau of Justice AssistanceWorld Wide Web Home Page

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA

For grant and funding information contactU.S. Department of Justice Response Center

1–800–421–6770

This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement No. 95–DD–BX–K001, awarded bythe Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice toCommunity Research Associates, Inc. This document was prepared by the Center for theStudy and Prevention of Hate Violence, University of Southern Maine, under contract withCommunity Research Associates, Inc. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recom-mendations expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily rep-resent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which alsoincludes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime.



PRACTITIONERS

February 2000

NCJ 179559

Prepared by Stephen WesslerCenter for the Study and Prevention of Hate Violence

University of Southern Maine

BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE

Acknowledgments

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) wishes to thank the author of this monograph, Stephen Wessler, Director of the University of Southern Maine’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Hate Violence. Mr. Wessler has agreed to write another monograph in the BJA Hate Crime Series in early 2000. BJA extends heartfelt thanks to John Firman and Nancy Turner of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Elaine Nugent of the American Prosecutors Research Institute; the time and energy they spent in reviewing the draft are much appreciated.

In addition, BJA would like to acknowledge the efforts of Community Research Associates and the assistance of BJA staff members Jennifer Knobe and Charlie Wendy, who shepherded this monograph from design to dissemination, and Patrick Coleman, who provided guidance in developing BJA’s Hate Crime Series.

iii

I. The Pivotal Role of Law Enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. The International Association of Chiefs of Police Summit:Hate Crime in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

III. DOJ Law Enforcement Training: The Essential Building Block to an Effective Response to Hate Violence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

DOJ’s National Hate Crime Training Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Refresher Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

IV. The American Prosecutors Research Institute’s Resource Guide for Prosecutors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

V. The Maine Civil Rights Officers Project: A Coordinated System of Training, Reporting, Investigation, and Prosecution . . . . . . . . . . . 13

VI. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

VII. For More Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

vBUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE

Contents

1BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE

I. The Pivotal Role of Law Enforcement

Over the past few years thenation has experienced an alarm-ing number of disturbing andsometimes deadly hate crimes.The dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr., inJasper, Texas; the deadly attack onMatthew Sheppard, a gay studentin Laramie, Wyoming; the shootingrampage targeting minority citizensin Chicago; and the shootings ofchildren at a Jewish communitycenter in Los Angeles, California,followed by the murder of JosephSantos Ileto, a Filipino-Americanmail carrier, have left a trail ofdead or wounded victims and trau-matized, fearful communities.During this time many otherAmericans have been the victimsof far less publicized hate crimesmotivated by their perpetrators’bias toward their perceived racialor ethnic identity, religion, national-ity, sexual orientation, gender, ordisability. These less well knownhate crimes resulted in similar lev-els of injury and trauma to both thevictims and the communities.

The nation has reacted to thesehate crimes with energy and inge-nuity. Responses include clear andstrong condemnation from reli-gious, civic, and governmentalleaders; efforts to strengthen stateand federal hate crime laws; innov-ative preventive programs in

schools; and additional resourcesfor training police officers andprosecutors.

Police officers generally are thefirst professionals responding tothe scene of a hate crime. Theiractions significantly affect the out-come of the criminal investigation aswell as the community’s responseto the incident. Therefore, lawenforcement agencies have a piv-otal role in responding to, investi-gating, prosecuting, and preventinghate crimes. To successfully carryout their roles, police officers andprosecutors must receive trainingon recognizing and investigatingpotential hate crimes, have clearprotocols on how to respond tohate violence, and develop innova-tive programs for preventing andresponding to hate crimes.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance(BJA) of the U.S. Department ofJustice (DOJ) has made it a priori-ty to support police and prosecuto-rial agencies in responding to hatecrimes. Examples of BJA-fundedprojects in this area include:

• The International Association ofChiefs of Police (IACP) Summit:Hate Crime in America.Convened in collaboration withthe Office of Justice Programs(OJP) and the Office of

Community Oriented PolicingServices, a 2-day summit atwhich law enforcement, civilrights, and other leaders devel-oped a broad range of recom-mendations for addressing hatecrimes in communities acrossthe country.

• DOJ’s National Hate CrimeTraining Initiative. The develop-ment of multilevel hate crimetraining curricula and the cre-ation of a nationwide trainingprogram for local law enforce-ment agencies to implement thecurricula.

• BJA’s Roll Call Video:Responding to Hate Crimes.The production of a 20-minutevideo covering the initialresponse to and investigationof possible hate crimes.

• The International Associationof Chiefs of Police’s Respond-ing to Hate Crimes: A PoliceOfficer’s Guide to Investigationand Prevention. The publicationof a compact guide designed asa quick reference to address

hate incidents, hate crimes, andhow best to assist victims.

• The American ProsecutorsResearch Institute’s (APRI’s)Resource Guide, ProsecutorsRespond to Hate Crimes Project.The publication of a resourceguide on hate crimes for localprosecutors.

• The Maine Department of theAttorney General’s DesignatedCivil Rights Officers Project.The development of a coordi-nated statewide system for hate crime investigation andprosecution.

These six efforts to address hate crimes are highlighted in this monograph. Individually, eachproject constitutes an innovativeeffort by police and prosecutors to improve systems for respondingto hate crimes. Collectively, how-ever, the six projects demonstratethe creativity and the deep com-mitment of local, state, and federallaw enforcement agencies in lead-ing the nation’s effort to combatbias-motivated crime.

2

ADDRESSING HATE CRIMES


II. The International Associationof Chiefs of Police Summit:Hate Crime in America

In June 1998, the InternationalAssociation of Chiefs of Police, inpartnership with OJP, convened a2-day national summit in Alexandria,Virginia, titled Hate Crime in Amer-ica. Police, civil rights leaders, andprosecutors were invited to explorethe problem of hate crimes andidentify the most promising waysto address it.

Past IACP summits on variousforms of violent crime broughttogether police leaders and otherexperts to discuss pressing nation-al law enforcement issues. The1998 summit convened 110 partic-ipants representing police depart-ments, federal law enforcementagencies (namely, the Bureau ofJustice Assistance, the Office ofJuvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention, the Office for Victims ofCrime (OVC), the Office of Com-munity Oriented Policing Services,DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, theCommunity Relations Service, andthe Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI)), state and county prosecu-tors, educators, victim assistanceprofessionals, physicians, civilrights advocates, and scholars.

The summit was structured toinclude both plenary sessions, inwhich national experts discussed

critical issues involving hatecrimes, and breakout sessions, inwhich participants engaged infacilitated discussions. ProfessorsJack Levin and Jack McDevitt,both of Northeastern University,presented the keynote address ontheir groundbreaking research onthe typology of hate crime perpe-trators. Topics for the eight break-out sessions included communities,schools, colleges and universities,first responders, courts, lawenforcement leadership, victimresponse, and organized hategroups. In the breakout sessions,each group developed recommen-dations to improve the understand-ing of, response to, and preventionof hate crimes given its topic.

In January 1999 the IACP pub-lished Hate Crime in America:Summit Recommendations. Thepublication provides comprehen-sive and insightful analysis of hatecrimes and a detailed compendiumof specific recommendations foraction that were developed at thesummit. This publication can beobtained from the IACP Web siteat www.the iacp.org/pubinfo/Research/hateamer.htm.

Collectively, three of the sum-mit’s key recommendations serve

as a blueprint for preventing andresponding to future hate crimes:

• Provide broad-based training forpolice officers at three levels:first responders, investigators,and managers. This recommen-dation has been implementedthrough DOJ’s National HateCrime Training Initiative.

• Introduce training for prosecu-tors. APRI has developed aresource guide to meet thisrecommendation.

• Assign responsibility forresponding to hate crimes to

one officer or one unit in thelaw enforcement agency. Thisrecommendation has beenimplemented in Maine and is in the process of being imple-mented in New Hampshire.

The recommendations estab-lished at the IACP 1998 summitwill continue to serve as guide-posts for law enforcement leadersin developing innovative programsfor responding to and preventinghate crimes.


4

III. DOJ Law Enforcement Training:The Essential Building Block to an EffectiveResponse to Hate Violence


PREVENTING AND COMBATING HATE

CRIMES ARE AMONG THE MOST

IMPORTANT CHALLENGES FOR LAW

ENFORCEMENT AND FOR OUR NATION.VIOLENCE COMMITTED BECAUSE THE VIC-TIMS LOOK DIFFERENT, PRACTICE A DIF-FERENT FAITH, OR COME FROM A

DIFFERENT ETHNIC BACKGROUND THREAT-ENS AMERICA’S MOST CHERISHED IDEALS.LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ARE ON THE

FRONT LINES AND PERFORM CRITICAL SER-VICES IN RESPONDING TO BIAS-MOTIVATED

HATE CRIMES THAT OCCUR IN OUR COM-MUNITIES. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OUR

HATE CRIME LAW DEPENDS ON POLICE

OFFICERS. THAT IS WHY IT IS ESSENTIAL

THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS RECEIVE

PROPER TRAINING.

—Janet RenoAttorney General

October 1999

Law enforcement officers play a key role in responding to hatecrimes. Their actions in protectingand assisting the victim at thescene of the hate crime, conduct-ing the initial investigation, andreporting the matter to superiors asa possible hate crime are critical

factors in determining the responseof both law enforcement and thecommunity to the incident. Theinvestigation of the incident byeither the initial responding offi-cers or detectives can determinewhether the case is prosecutable.

The impact of officer training oninitial hate crime responses andsubsequent investigations cannotbe overestimated. Although hatecrimes present significant problemsand challenges for the nation, thenumber of hate crimes is smallcompared with that of other violentcrimes. To identify possible hatecrimes, respond to victim andcommunity concerns, and conducteffective investigations, police offi-cers need both initial comprehen-sive training and periodic refreshercourses.

Officers who are inadequatelytrained to handle hate crimes mayfail to identify indicators of hatecrimes, respond inappropriately tovictims, fail to apprehend a perpe-trator who may strike again, exac-erbate community tensions, andundermine confidence in lawenforcement. As law enforcementagencies across the nation havedemonstrated, hate crime trainingmust be thorough and widespread.

In response to this need for offi-cer training, BJA provided fundsand support to three projects tar-geting law enforcement:

• DOJ’s National Hate CrimeTraining Initiative.

• BJA’s Roll Call Video.

• The IACP’s Responding to HateCrimes: A Police Officer’s Guideto Investigation and Prevention.

The breadth of these projectsdemonstrates law enforcement’scommitment and creativity indeveloping a multifaceted approachto hate crimes.

DOJ’s National HateCrime Training Initiative

In 1997, under the direction ofAttorney General Janet Reno, DOJcalled together a working groupcomprising representatives of pros-ecution, law enforcement, victimservices, and training agencies.The Attorney General charged theworking group to develop fourtraining curricula on hate crimes,each designed for a different levelof law enforcement: patrol andresponding officers, investigatorsand detectives, supervisors andcommand officers, and an audi-ence of all levels of law enforce-ment professionals. The workinggroup included representatives ofseveral agencies within DOJ (theFBI, the Community RelationsService, and OVC) and additionalfederal and state agencies includ-ing the National Association ofAttorneys General, the U.S.

Department of Treasury’s FederalLaw Enforcement Training Center,and the International Association ofDirectors of Law EnforcementStandards and Training. The work-ing group met regularly over sum-mer and fall 1997 to develop thefour hate crime training curricula.

On November 10, 1997,President Clinton announced thetraining initiative at the White HouseConference on Hate Crimes. Theworking group continued editing the curricula and began to developthe national train-the-trainer program to be implemented in fall 1998.

The curricula for patrol andresponding officers, investigatorsand detectives, and a mixed audi-ence of law enforcement profes-sionals have been printed anddistributed, and the fourth, forsupervisors and command officers,is scheduled to be printed in 2000.

Each curriculum provides train-ers with lesson plans and trainingmaterials for an 8-hour course thatcovers the following topics:

• History of bias crimes.

• Identifying hate crimes: defini-tions, bias crime indicators, andoffender typology.

• Legal issues.

• Guidelines for an effectiveresponse.

• Investigative strategies andguidelines for collection andpreservation of evidence.


6

• Victim trauma.

• Community strategies and relationships.

• Case studies.

The curricula, using a mix ofteaching approaches including lec-tures, class activities, and videos,can be modified by trainers to fit a shorter time period other thanthe full 8-hour presentation.

The working group realized thatto ensure that the hate crime cur-ricula would be used widely andeffectively, a national training ini-tiative had to be developed andimplemented. The working groupdrew up a plan to train teams oftrainers who would commit to con-ducting a minimum of four hatecrime trainings within their states.The first two steps in this processwere to select the state trainingteams and to hold three regionaltrain-the-trainer conferences.

The selection process began inearly 1998 when DOJ sent lettersto key law enforcement leaders inevery state, including the U.S.Attorney, the state attorney gener-al, the director of the state IACPorganization, and the director ofthe state law enforcement trainingorganization. DOJ asked theseleaders to recommend individualswho had expertise in law enforce-ment, victim assistance, civil rightsadvocacy, or community relationsto serve on their state’s trainingteam. The working group thenselected the training teams fromthe recommendations. In total, 78 teams were selected from 50

states and the District of Columbia.The training teams were thenassigned to attend one of thethree regional train-the-trainer conferences.

The intensive, 21⁄2-day train-the-trainer conferences were held inSeptember and October 1998 inChicago, Orlando, and Phoenix. The faculty, consisting of mem-bers of the DOJ Hate Crime LawEnforcement Working Group, represented a diverse group of pro-fessionals with extensive experiencein hate crimes training. Conferenceparticipants were extremelyimpressed with both the skill andenergy of the instructors and thebreadth and scope of the curricula.

THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT OF THESE

SCORES OF TRAININGS TO THOUSANDS

OF OFFICERS CANNOT BE OVERESTIMAT-ED. IN POLICE DEPARTMENTS THROUGHOUT

THE COUNTRY OFFICERS NOW ARE PREPARED

TO RESPOND TO AND INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL

HATE CRIMES WITH SPEED, KNOWLEDGE, AND

SKILL. THE RESULT IS NOT ONLY MORE EFFEC-TIVE ENFORCEMENT OF HATE CRIME LAWS

BUT, JUST AS IMPORTANT, IMPROVED RESPECT

FOR POLICE DEPARTMENTS FROM THE COM-MUNITIES THEY SERVE.

—Nancy Gist Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance

BJA has since dedicated per-sonnel and funding to coordinatelocal trainings to be conducted by

DOJ Law Enforcement Training


train-the-trainer workshop partici-pants. In the past 12 months, statetraining teams in 31 states haveconducted more than 138 trainings.More than 4,000 law enforcementand other professionals havereceived training.

Refresher TrainingBoth BJA and the IACP recog-

nize that a truly comprehensiveapproach to hate crime trainingmust go beyond the classroom.Officers who do not receive the 8-hour training on hate crime inves-tigation and response need practicaland readily available resources forlearning the basics of responding tohate crimes. Similarly, officers whohave taken the full-day course willbenefit from periodic short refresh-er programs. BJA and the IACPhave met these needs with twotraining projects, BJA’s Roll CallVideo and the IACP’s publicationResponding to Hate Crimes: APolice Officer’s Guide to Investiga-tion and Prevention, production ofwhich was funded by BJA and OVC.

Roll Call Video: Responding toHate Crimes

BJA’s Roll Call Video, a 20-minute film, is designed to beshown either in its entirety or inshorter segments at roll calls or onother occasions when officers aregathered. The video begins with anintroduction by Attorney GeneralJanet Reno and is narrated by OakBluffs, Massachusetts, Police ChiefJoseph Carter. It covers majorareas of hate crime investigationand response:

• Identification of bias indicators.

• Initial response to a potentialhate crime.

• Investigation of a potential hatecrime.

• Collection and presentation ofevidence.

• Importance of understanding andresponding to victim trauma.

• Maintenance of good communi-ty relations when responding tohate crimes.

• Resources that are available toofficers.

In early 2000, BJA will send acopy of the video (in excess of14,000 copies) to every state,county, and municipal law enforce-ment agency in the nation.

Accompanying the video is ashort instructor’s handbook, whichprovides answers to frequentlyasked questions about hate crimesand explains how to analyze biasindicators at a crime scene. The


8

I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH BOTH

CHIEF CARTER’S CLEAR AND CONCISE

PRESENTATION AND THE REALISTIC

VIDEO SEGMENTS SHOWING ACTUAL

CRIMES. THE VIDEO COVERS THE MAJOR

AREAS OF HATE CRIME RESPONSE IN A

SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME. SIMPLY PUT,THIS IS A VERY EFFECTIVE TRAINING TOOL.

—David A. Loranger, Detective SergeantSaco, Maine, Police Department

handbook also includes supple-mentary instructions.

BJA’s Roll Call Video is a quickand effective way to provideconcrete information in a visuallycompelling format. Police officershave found the video to be bothexplicit and instructive.

Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer’s Guide toInvestigation and Prevention

The IACP’s publication, Respon-ding to Hate Crimes: A PoliceOfficer’s Guide to Investigation andPrevention, contains two trainingtools: a 12-page guidebook thatcovers major components of aneffective response to an investiga-tion of hate crimes and a smaller,detachable pocket guide outliningspecific investigative procedures,designed to be placed in an offi-cer’s pocket, under a visor, or on a clipboard.

The 12-page guide is intended to be kept in an officer’s briefcaseor cruiser. The booklet includes clearly written comprehensivechecklists, and covers the essentialcomponents of an effectiveresponse to hate crimes:

• Definition of hate crimes.

• Difference between hate crimesand bias incidents.

• Key indicators of bias motivation.

• Steps to take at the scene of apossible hate crime.

• Effective approaches to assist-ing victims of hate crimes.

• Strategies police departmentsand officers can take in theircommunities to prevent hatecrimes.

The small detachable pocketguide is designed to be kept in anofficer’s pocket or cruiser for quickreference when an officer is called torespond to a possible hate crime. Itaddresses the key issues an officerfaces at the scene of a hate crime.The officer can quickly review theessential components of effectivehate crime response: the definitionof hate crimes, actions to be takenat the crime scene, key indicators ofhate crimes, and ways to meet theneeds of hate crime victims.

DOJ Law Enforcement Training


TO BE TRULY EFFECTIVE FOR LARGE

NUMBERS OF POLICE OFFICERS,TRAINING MUST BE MULTILEVEL, MUL-TIMEDIA, FLEXIBLE, AND PRACTICAL.THE ARRAY OF TRAINING OPTIONS AVAIL-ABLE TO POLICE OFFICERS—FROM AN

8-HOUR TRAINING AND A 20-MINUTE

VIDEO TO AN 8-PAGE BOOKLET AND A

SMALL POCKET INSERT—MEETS EACH OF

THESE CRITERIA. WE NOW, FOR THE FIRST

TIME, HAVE THE TOOLS WITH WHICH TO

ENSURE THAT ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFI-CERS THROUGHOUT OUR NATION RECEIVE

NEEDED INFORMATION AND TRAINING ON

RESPONDING TO AND INVESTIGATING HATE

CRIMES.

—Mike RobinsonSuperintendent of Michigan State Police

President, IACP

The IACP, with funding from BJAand OVC, plans to print 450,000copies of the publication (including

the pocket insert) and distributethem to police departments andvictims advocates across the nation.


10


IV. The American ProsecutorsResearch Institute’s Resource Guidefor Prosecutors

The goal of the AmericanProsecutors Research Institute pro-ject, supported by funding fromBJA, is to provide prosecutingoffices with a comprehensiveresource guide for responding toand preventing hate crimes. InJanuary 1999 APRI established an18-member advisory group tocreate a resource guide and devel-op training for prosecutors. Theadvisory group includes 10 localprosecutors as well as representa-tives from the IACP, the Anti-Defamation League, the Center onHate and Extremism, the NationalCenter for Victims of Crime, FacingHistory, a county sheriff’s office,the FBI, and the DOJ CommunityRelations Service. The advisory

group, together with staff from theAPRI, is in the process of writing aresource guide that will be pub-lished in early 2000.

When completed, the more than100-page resource guide will bebound in a 3-ring binder to facilitateupdating (such as new legislationand court decisions). It will coverseveral issues that arise duringhate crime prosecutions:

• Working with outside agenciesand organizations.

• Case screening and investigation.

• Case assignment and preparation.

• Victim and witness impact andsupport.

• Trial preparation.

• Sentencing alternatives.

• Prevention efforts.

APRI plans to distribute a copyof the resource guide to all 3,100local and state prosecutor’s officesin the country.

By highlighting model protocolsand procedures from officesaround the nation, the resourceguide will help prosecutor’s officesdevelop policies and procedures onhandling hate crime investigations

PROSECUTORS HAVE TREMENDOUS

POTENTIAL TO PREVENT HATE CRIMES

AND RESTORE JUSTICE TO BOTH VIC-TIMS AND COMMUNITIES. WHILE MANY

PROSECUTORS HAVE GAINED SOME EXPERI-ENCE WITH THE PROSECUTION OF HATE

CRIME CASES, MOST PROSECUTING OFFI-CERS DO NOT HAVE WRITTEN POLICIES ON

HANDLING HATE CRIMES.

—APRI Project Overview


12

and prosecutions. It also will pro-vide a comprehensive roadmap toindividual prosecutors who arehandling hate crime cases. Bothprosecutors who are working ontheir first hate crime case andmore experienced prosecutors ofbias crimes will find the resourceguide helpful.

After the resource guide is pub-lished, APRI and its advisory groupwill turn its attention to the devel-opment of training on hate crimeresponse and prosecution. The

initial effort will be to hold a train-ing conference for teams fromprosecutorial districts. The teamswill include prosecutors, police offi-cers, and victim service profes-sionals. The training will follow ateam approach. Investigation, vic-tim outreach and support, andprosecution will be integrated intoone coordinated system that willprovide more effective enforce-ment of hate crime laws andincreased responsiveness to bothvictims and the community.

V. The Maine Civil Rights OfficersProject:

THE TANGIBLE RESULTS OF MAINE’SEFFORTS HAVE BEEN EXTRAORDINARY—A HIGH LEVEL OF REPORTING OF POTEN-TIAL HATE CRIMES BY POLICE AGENCIES

AND A LARGE NUMBER OF ENFORCEMENT

CASES BROUGHT SUCCESSFULLY TO COURT

BY PROSECUTORS. BUT PERHAPS EVEN

MORE IMPORTANT HAS BEEN THE STRONG

UNIFIED MESSAGE SENT BY LAW ENFORCE-MENT AT ALL LEVELS THAT HATE CRIMES

WILL NOT BE TOLERATED WITHIN OUR STATE.

—Andrew KettererAttorney General, State of Maine

Maine is 1 of 15 states with acivil hate crime law. This lawauthorizes the state attorney gener-al to obtain restraining orders orinjunctions against persons whoengage in bias-motivated violence,threats, or property damage. In1992, with support from BJA, theMaine Attorney General’s Officedesigned a coordinated enforce-ment system with local, county,campus, and state police agencies.This system relies on designatedcivil rights officers from each of these law enforcement agen-cies to report hate crimes and

bias incidents to the AttorneyGeneral’s Office and coordinatethe response of their departmentswith the enforcement efforts of the Attorney General’s Office andother prosecutorial agencies.

The program was put into placein fall 1992 when the Maine attor-ney general sent a letter to everypolice chief and sheriff in the staterequesting that he or she designatean officer as the civil rights officerfor the department and send theofficer to a full-day training sessionconducted by the AttorneyGeneral’s Office.

The Attorney General’s Officeconducts two types of training: full-day biannual trainings and certifi-cation of designated civil rightsofficers and shorter trainings at thedepartment, regional, or policeacademy level. Since 1992, theAttorney General’s Office has con-ducted full-day training sessionsfor more than 670 civil rights offi-cers from law enforcement depart-ments located throughout the stateand more than 80 shorter trainingsfor local and regional departmentsand at police training academies.More than 1,500 officers haveattended these latter trainings.

A Coordinated System of Training,Reporting, Investigation, and Prosecution



14

As of fall 1999, at least 1 civilrights officer had been trained andcertified in 147 of the 153 policedepartments at the municipal,county, state, and campus levels.Early in 2000 the New HampshireAttorney General’s Office will beginimplementation of a similar civilrights officers system.

The Maine enforcement systemcoordinates the response of policeand prosecutors at local, state, andfederal levels. When civil rightsofficers report possible hate crimesto the Attorney General’s Office,that office quickly determines

whether to pursue the matter as apossible civil rights violation. If thematter is pursued, an assistantattorney general is assigned towork with the civil rights officerfrom the reporting department tocoordinate the investigation. TheAttorney General’s Office thennotifies the county district attorneyand the U.S. Attorney if the matterappears to violate either state hatecrime laws or federal criminal civilrights laws. These actions result ininvestigations that are thoroughand efficient and are coordinatedamong three levels of prosecutors.

VI. Conclusion

WHILE LAW ENFORCEMENT’S ACCOM-PLISHMENTS HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT,THEY ARE MADE WITH A KEEN UNDER-STANDING OF THE NEED FOR PERSEVER-ANCE AND A CONSTANT RENEWED

COMMITMENT TO PERSEVERE IN AMERICA’SFIGHT AGAINST HATE AND VIOLENCE.

—Janet RenoAttorney General

Unfortunately the nation’s work in confronting bias and prejudiceand the violence that they engender

is not over. Hate crimes present achallenge to law enforcement todesign mechanisms and systemsfor responding to the divisive anddestructive impact of hate vio-lence. Recently, law enforcement,with financial, technical, and pro-fessional support from DOJ, hasmobilized to meet this challenge bydesigning comprehensive and flexi-ble training programs, developingprotocols for fast and effectiveresponse, and implementing sys-tems for coordinated enforcementand prosecution.


VII. For More Information

Anti-Defamation League823 United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017Phone: 212–490–2525

Arab American Institute918 16th Street NW., Suite 601Washington, DC 20006Phone: 202–429–9210Fax: 202–429–9214

Bureau of Justice Assistance Clearinghouse

P.O. Box 6000Rockville, MD 20849–6000Phone: 1–800–688–4252Fax: 301–519–5212E-mail: [email protected]

Bureau of Justice Statistics810 Seventh Street NW.Washington, DC 20531Phone: 202–307–0765Fax: 202–307–5846

Community Relations ServiceU.S. Department of Justice600 E Street NW., Suite 2000Washington, DC 20530Phone: 202–305–2935Fax: 202–305–3009

Disability Law Center11 Beacon Street, Suite 925Boston, MA 02108Phone: 617–723–8455Fax: 617–723–9125

Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation

16 Hurd RoadBrookline, MA 02146Phone: 617–232–1595Fax: 617–232–0281

Federal Bureau of InvestigationJ. Edgar Hoover Building10th Street and Pennsylvania

Avenue NW.Washington, DC 20535Phone: 202–324–1143

Federal Bureau of InvestigationCriminal Justice Information

Services DivisionAttn: Uniform Crime Reports1000 Custer Hollow RoadClarksburg, WV 26306Phone: 304–625–4995Fax: 304–625–5394

Human Rights Campaign1101 14th Street NW., Suite 200Washington, DC 20005Phone: 202–628–4160Fax: 202–347–5323

International Association of Chiefs of Police

515 North Washington StreetAlexandria, VA 22314–2357Phone: 703–836–6767Fax: 703–836–4543



18

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium

1140 Connecticut Avenue NW., Suite 1200

Washington, DC 20036Phone: 202–296–2300Fax: 202–296–2318

National Conference of Christians and Jews

71 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1100New York, NY 10003Phone: 212–206–0006Fax: 212–255–6177

National Congress of American Indians

2010 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Second Floor


National Council of La Raza1111 19th Street NW., Suite 1000Washington, DC 20036Phone: 202–785–1670Fax: 202–776–1792

National Criminal Justice Association

444 North Capitol Street NW., Suite 618


National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

2320 17th Street NW.Washington, DC 20009–2702Phone: 202–332–6483Fax: 202–332–0207

National Network of Violence Prevention

55 Chapel StreetNewton, MA 02158Phone: 617–969–7100Fax: 617–244–3436

National Women’s Law Center11 Dupont Circle NW., Suite 800Washington, DC 20036Phone: 202–588–5180Fax: 202–588–5185

Office for Victims of Crime810 Seventh Street NW.Washington, DC 20531Phone: 202–307–5983Fax: 202–514–6383

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

810 Seventh Street NW.Washington, DC 20531Phone: 202–307–5911Fax: 202–307–2093

President’s Initiative for One America

The Old Executive Office BuildingWashington, DC 20503Phone: 202–395–1010Fax: 202–395–1020

Simon Wiesenthal Center9760 West Pico BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90035Phone: 310–553–9036Fax: 310–553–8007

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights624 Ninth Street NW.,

Suite 700Washington, DC 20425Phone: 202–337–0382Fax: 202–376–7558

U.S. Department of Education600 Independence Avenue SW.Washington, DC 20202Phone: 202–205–5557Fax: 202–205–5381

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 Seventh Street NW.,Room 10000


Violence Against Women Office800 K Street NW., Suite 900Washington, DC 20531Phone: 202–616–8894Fax: 202–307–3911

Women’s Legal Defense Fund1875 Connecticut Avenue NW.,

Suite 710Washington, DC 20009Phone: 202–986–2600Fax: 202–986–2539

For More Information


Bureau of Justice AssistanceInformation

General Information

❒ MailP.O. Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849–6000

❒ Visit2277 Research Boulevard Rockville, MD 20850

❒ Telephone 1–800–688–4252 Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. eastern time

❒ Fax301–519–5212

❒ Fax on Demand1–800–688–4252

Callers may contact the U.S. Department of Justice Response Center for general informa-tion or specific needs, such as assistance in submitting grant applications and informationon training. To contact the Response Center, call 1–800–421–6770 or write to 1100Vermont Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20005.

Indepth Information

For more indepth information about BJA, its programs, and its funding opportunities,requesters can call the BJA Clearinghouse. The BJA Clearinghouse, a component of theNational Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), shares BJA program informationwith state and local agencies and community groups across the country. Information spe-cialists are available to provide reference and referral services, publication distribution,participation and support for conferences, and other networking and outreach activities.The Clearinghouse can be reached by:

❒ BJA Home Pagehttp://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA

❒ NCJRS World Wide Web http://www.ncjrs.org

❒ [email protected]

❒ JUSTINFO NewsletterE-mail to [email protected] the subject line blankIn the body of the message,type:subscribe justinfo[your name]

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