Hate crime reports buck national trend, rise in Nevada

Monday, Aug. 14, 2000 | 1:57 a.m.

Hate crimes in Nevada bucked the national trend and climbed in 1999 for the second consecutive year.

Law enforcement officials aren't sure whether the increase reflects an upswing in the crimes or merely an increase in people reporting them.

Police reported 73 incidents of assault, intimidation, burglary or vandalism last year that were likely motivated by a hatred of someone based on their race, religion or sexual orientation, a report by the Department of Public Safety and the Nevada Highway Patrol shows. There also was a report of one incident arising from bias against a mentally disabled person.

The 74 hate crimes that occurred in Nevada are up from 56 in 1998 and 43 in 1997. The 1997 number was down from the previous two years.

Nationwide, the FBI reported 8,759 hate crimes in 1996 and 9,861 in 1997. In 1998, the last year nationwide information is available, the number dropped to 7,755.

The state report is an addendum to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, and offers no explanation for the increase.

Howard Zlotnick, first assistant United States Attorney for Nevada, hopes the higher numbers are the result of people starting to tell police when they are victimized or witness a crime.

"I am hoping that people are reporting incidents as hate crimes that they think are hate crimes," Zlotnick told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Law enforcement officers also are receiving special training in identifying and investigating hate crimes.

"This is a nationwide problem," Zlotnick said.

Collection of statistics on hate crimes began with the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act, passed in 1990. The act defines a hate crime as that occurring against a person or property and motivated by bias toward race, religion, ethnicity/national origin, disability or sexual orientation.

Data in the state report were provided by 38 Nevada law enforcement agencies.

Of Nevada's 74 incidents, 46 occurred in Las Vegas police jurisdiction, which includes Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County. Reno police handled 15 incidents and North Las Vegas Police handled seven. The Washoe County's School District Police handled three complaints while Washoe County sheriff's office handled two. Clark County School District Police reported one incident.