A. SUMMARY These data represent hate crimes reported by the SFPD to the California Department of Justice. Read the detailed overview of this dataset here.

What is a Hate Crime? A hate crime is a crime against a person, group, or property motivated by the victim's real or perceived protected social group. An individual may be the victim of a hate crime if they have been targeted because of their actual or perceived: (1) disability, (2) gender, (3) nationality, (4) race or ethnicity, (5) religion, (6) sexual orientation, and/or (7) association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. Hate crimes are serious crimes that may result in imprisonment or jail time.

B. HOW THE DATASET IS CREATED How is a Hate Crime Processed?
Not all prejudice incidents including the utterance of hate speech rise to the level of a hate crime. The U.S. Constitution allows hate speech if it does not interfere with the civil rights of others. While these acts are certainly hurtful, they do not rise to the level of criminal violations and thus may not be prosecuted. When a prejudice incident is reported, the reporting officer conducts a preliminary investigation and writes a crime or incident report. Bigotry must be the central motivation for an incident to be determined to be a hate crime. In that report, all facts such as verbatims or statements that occurred before or after the incident and characteristics such as the race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or sexual orientations of the victim and suspect (if known) are included. To classify a prejudice incident, the San Francisco Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit of the Special Investigations Division conducts an analysis of the incident report to determine if the incident falls under the definition of a “hate crime” as defined by state law. California Penal Code 422.55 - Hate Crime Definition

C. UPDATE PROCESS These data are updated monthly.

D. HOW TO USE THIS DATASET This dataset includes the following information about each incident: the hate crime offense, bias type, location/time, and the number of hate crime victims and suspects. The data presented mirrors data published by the California Department of Justice, albeit at a higher frequency. The publishing of these data meet requirements set forth in PC 13023.

E. RELATED DATASETS California Department of Justice - Hate Crimes Info California Department of Justice - Hate Crimes Data