The FBI released its 2012 hate-crime statistics, but figures for five of Texas’ largest cities are missing.
Fort Worth reported 14 incidents, but there are no statistics for Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso or Austin. FBI spokeswoman Katie Chamount said Texas as well as New Jersey missed the publishing deadlines. Complete figures should be available in January.
Nationally, 5,796 hate crimes were reported with 1,135 of them based on sexual orientation.
At first glance, the report shows Texas had a significant drop in hate crimes. A comparison shows 1,089 bias-motivated crimes in California, compared to only 60 in Texas.
Chamount explained there are two reporting systems. Across Texas, 65 agencies, including Fort Worth, used one system and those incidents were reported in the national figures. Of Fort Worth’s 14 reported incidents, three were based on sexual orientation. Lewisville reported two and Rowlett had one based on sexual orientation.
Highland Park, Flower Mound, Frisco and Rockwall as well as DFW Airport reported there were no bias-related crimes in their jurisdictions.
In addition to sexual orientation, the hate-crime categories include race, religion, disability and ethnicity/national origin.
Texas Department of Public Safety also reports hate crime statistic. The DPS report contains information the FBI has not received, but the agency expects to have it in January.
DPS reported 170 incidents. Of those, 53 were anti-LGBT, the second largest group after race. Although that number is three times what the FBI reported, it’s still low compared to California or the 741 bias-motivated incidents reported by New York.
DPS lists 30 hate crimes reported by Dallas, 17 by San Antonio, 13 by Houston, 6 by Austin and 4 by El Paso.
