It is important for the community to understand what is – and is not – a hate crime. First and foremost, the incident must be a crime. Although that may seem obvious, most speech is not a hate crime, regardless of how offensive it may be. In addition, a hate crime is not a crime, but a possible motive for a crime.

It can be difficult to establish a motive for a crime. Therefore, the classification as a hate crime is subject to change as an investigation proceeds – even as prosecutors continue an investigation. If a person is found guilty of a hate crime, the court may fine the offender up to 1½ times the maximum fine and imprison him or her for up to 1½ times the maximum term authorized for the underlying crime.

While the District strives to reduce crime for all residents of and visitors to the city, hate crimes can make a particular community feel vulnerable and more fearful. This is unacceptable, and is the reason everyone must work together not just to address allegations of hate crimes, but also to proactively educate the public about hate crimes.

The figures in this data align with DC Official Code 22-3700. Because the DC statute differs from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) definitions, these figures may be higher than those reported to the FBI.

Each month, an MPD team reviews crimes that have been identified as potentially motivated by hate/bias to determine whether there is sufficient information to support that designation. The data in this document is current through the end of the most recent month.

The hate crimes dataset is not an official MPD database of record and may not match details in records pulled from the official Records Management System (RMS).

Unknown or blank values in the Targeted Group field may be present prior to 2016 data. As of January 2022, an offense with multiple bias categories would be reflected as such.

Data is updated on the 15th of every month.