'Underreported, under investigated, under prosecuted': Few bias crimes in CT result in charges, data shows

And while there is a centralized hate crimes police unit, it does not lead investigations. Earlier this month, a bag filled with rocks, covered in white supremacist propaganda, was found in Stamford. Mayor Caroline Simmons condemned the act, but Stamford police Capt. Tom Scanlon said no charges would be filed.

“We've conferred with the State's Attorney's Office and presented them with the information. It's been determined that in this particular circumstance that that flyer was not going to be considered criminal,” Scanlon said.

Officials in Westport said incidents earlier this month involving racist graffiti and white supremacist propaganda were on the rise in the town, though Westport police Lt. Eric Woods said it was likely that no charges would be filed. 

"None of these areas are covered by security cameras and without direct observation of the crime, these incidents usually go unsolved," Woods said.

Incidents involving white supremacist propaganda have surged in recent years, data collected by the ADL show a 115 percent increase statewide in 2022, compared to 2021. The ADL said 207 incidents occurred in 2022 that included white supremacist stickers and flyers distributed and found at state parks, flyers with racist, homophobic and antisemitic messages found in residents’ yards, and one group placing flyers on car windows in Waterbury.

Connecticut State Police does have a centralized hate crimes take force, though Sgt. Christine Jeltema said its primary function is data collection and analysis, reporting its findings to a statewide Hate Crimes Advisory Council. As such, investigations usually fall to local police. 

“The purpose of the unit is to seek, to prevent and detect any criminal activity, compile, monitor and analyze data and to share data,” Jeltema said. “The unit does not do investigations, each agency does their own, and we can be another resource for them if needed.”

Of the 59 cases in 2022 in which the state police hate crimes unit got involved — either an incident falling within the state police jurisdiction or the unit providing assistance to another agency — 44 cases were suspended with no leads. Two cases were referred to the FBI and four cases resulted in a juvenile summons.

Only five cases resulted in an arrest, with charges relating to bigotry and bias, deprivation of rights or property and threatening.

There is also no unified understanding across police departments of what constitutes a hate crime, according to a 2022 report issued by the state's Hate Crimes Advisory Council.

“At present, there is no standard hate crimes policy for police departments to reference that clearly defines the elements of bias crimes and sets out clear reporting and investigating procedures for all law enforcement agencies, including the 92 municipal police departments,” the report says.

That, according to the report, has led to “inconsistencies in agency approaches and responses.”

Sometimes, a resident will complain to a local police department, which will decide not to pursue an incident. 

“There are often times when complainants file a report to their local police department and are not satisfied or did not agree with the outcome,” Jeltema said. “Therefore, they would reach out to the unit to look into it. The unit would find there was not enough evidence or probable cause that rises to the elements of a crime.” 

Those cases are categorized as “not as reported.” There were two such cases during 2022.

“Police are not accustomed to identify hate crimes,” said Richard A Wilson, a professor of law at UConn School of Law and a member of the Hate Crimes Advisory Council. “Some police may not see many of them, and so they may not identify the bias motive that exists.”

Bias incidents vs. hate crimes

The U.S. Department of Justice differentiates between hate crimes and bias incidents. A hate crime, according to the DOJ definition, is “a crime motivated by bias against race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.”

Connecticut’s laws regarding hate crimes differ from federal statutes, but are similar in thrust. In Connecticut, to prove a hate crime, prosecutors must prove that a suspect “acted with malicious intent,” according to Judge Douglas S. Lavine, an appellate court judge and co-chair of the Hate Crimes Advisory Council. 

Prosecutors must also demonstrate “that the crime is motivated in whole or substantial part by bias or bigotry,” Lavine said.

The Hate Crimes Advisory Council said in its 2022 report that Connecticut hate crime laws are too ambiguous when it comes to “intent,” making it more difficult to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

“The council found that one of the main impediments to law enforcement reporting and charging hate crimes is the ambiguous intent standard in the Connecticut General Statutes,” according to the Advisory Council report, though Wilson said that is beginning to change. 

“There is a process going on right now,” he said. “The Sentencing Commission is now doing a thoroughgoing review of the hate crime statutes. The Hate Crimes Advisory Council asked them to take that on, and they've agreed to do that, and they'll be conducting a review of the statutes.”

“Bias incidents,” according to the U.S. DOJ, are “acts of prejudice that are not crimes and do not involve violence, threats or property damage.”

When a white supremacist group drops flyers with hate-filled messages or spray paints antisemitic graffiti on a wall, it may be intimidating to the community, Lavine said, but it might not rise to the level of a hate crime. 

“If there is a bias incident, or what would be short of or less than a hate crime, that is still a matter of great concern, and I think where that shows up the most is in schools,” Lavine said. “Sometimes the language that is used in schools and the extent of what I would call a bias incident shows up in a school environment or in environments where people are maybe being harassed or bullied, but no crime is necessarily occurring.”

Often, First Amendment rights are a concern for prosecutors when bias crimes are involved,  “especially if it just involves speech,” Lavine said. “Hateful speech, perhaps, but not a crime or not prosecutable because of the First Amendment, essentially.”

“Not all of these events are illegal. There may not be a hate crime statute that corresponds to them,” Wilson said. “Spreading hate literature may not be in itself an offense. It may be offensive and may be reprehensible, but much hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, including racist slurs and antisemitic remarks and so on.”

That was the case in Stamford when earlier this month residents found a bag of rocks that expressed white supremacist messaging. 

“The language contained on paper within the bag of rocks cannot be penalized as a hate crime or other offense because it is protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Stamford/Norwalk State’s Attorney Paul J. Ferencek said by email. “Generally, speech can be criminalized as a hate crime when it is accompanied by physical injury or contact with another person, by violence or threat of violence, or by damage to property.”

Not all bias incidents are protected, Wilson said: “If some of it veers into inciting violence, encouraging violence, urging violence against a protected group, if it makes threats of harm, then it could move into the category of an offense.”

That does not mean bias incidents are not investigated. Though Jeltema said the original intent of the state police’s hate crimes unit was to conduct investigations, its focus has since shifted to data analysis and assistance. 

Wilson said the state police hate crimes unit has been tracking and compiling information on every bias incident in the state, and two of the 59 cases the unit investigated in 2022 resulted in the identification of a person of interest even though no charges were filed. 

Federal authorities also track and follow bias incidents. 

“It is my understanding that the FBI, with due consideration for First Amendment concerns, keeps aware of hateful activities that are going on in the state to make sure they don't cross the line into criminal activities,” Lavine said.

But Wilson believes the number of hate crimes reported to the FBI is a fraction of the real total. 

“Over 7,000 hate crimes were reported to the FBI last year. We think the real number is somewhere around 250,000, and so there's a huge gap there,” Wilson said. “We don't have a good picture. I believe we have a patchwork. The police know some things. Groups that are tracking like ADL probably have a better picture, possibly even than the police.”

Inconsistent reporting

With no centralized policy across police departments, the advisory council found that reporting of hate crimes and bias incidents are inconsistent in Connecticut.

“Hate crimes are massively and systematically underreported, thus limiting law enforcement agency responses,” according to the council’s report. “Currently, law enforcement agencies in Connecticut use different reporting protocols and do not gather sufficient contextual information to assist the prosecution of crimes motivated by bias or bigotry.”

Among the council’s recommendations was the creation of a “standardized reporting template for use throughout Connecticut that distinguishes between and records information on ‘hate crimes,’ ‘hate incidents’ and ‘crimes with bias elements.’” 

A bill proposed this year in the state legislative judicial committee would do just that: “Establish a pilot program to standardize and streamline the collection of data on hate crimes, bias incidents and crimes with bias incidents in order to assist law enforcement with investigation and prosecution of these crimes.”

That bill, however, was never reported out of committee, though Wilson said officials are developing a statewide reporting form. 

“We have a real commitment from law enforcement to taking hate crimes more seriously than they have been in the past,” he said. “We're developing a statewide hate crimes policy for all law enforcement in the state, and a new reporting form and those should be available later this year.” 

When that happens, Connecticut will be the first state in the nation to have a statewide hate crimes policy and standardized reporting structure. 

“I think Connecticut can lead the way on this,” Wilson said. “There are many municipalities that have them. But our law enforcement would be unified under one policy and one reporting form, and I don't believe any other state has done that.”

Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said Connecticut’s Division of Criminal Justice is “committed to doing more to increase community awareness, encourage the reporting of hate crimes and develop and implement strategies to combat such crimes.” 

“We know in Connecticut and across the country that hate crimes are among the most underreported, under investigated and under prosecuted of all crimes committed,” he said. “The insidious nature of hate crimes are that while they target individuals, the damage is felt by entire communities.”

Another factor confounding officials’ attempt to quantify bias incidents and hate crimes is an unwillingness to report incidents among community members, which Lavine called a “very serious problem."

“Any expert will tell you that the real number of bias incidents and hate crimes are probably orders of magnitude greater than what law enforcement collects,” he said.

There are several reasons, Lavine said, why victims of a hate crime or bias incident would not issue a report. 

“Sometimes the police investigations don't delve deep enough when questioning victims to find out whether a hate crime was committed or not,” he said. “For example, if someone is assaulted, the police will take the information about an assault, but may not inquire about the motive for the assault, and in a hate crime, you have to prove motive. You have to prove that the perpetrator had a motive of committing a crime due to hate. Not easy to prove.” 

“In order for a case to be prosecuted as a hate crime, law enforcement must prove a specific motivation of bias, that the accused committed the crime because of the victim’s race, religion, or national origin,” Griffin said. “The burden of proof for this can be difficult, leading to a limited number of charges brought and convictions obtained under state hate crime laws.”

Lavine said that often “people who may be victimized don't want to go to the police,” sometimes because “they don't trust the police” or because they “don't want to get involved and be publicized.” 

In other cases, victims of hate-related incidents, often members of immigrant communities, might feel reporting the crime could put them in jeopardy. 

“Many people have immigration problems, and they're afraid if they go to the police, that means they might end up being deported,” Lavine said.