September 25, 2024 (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Falls Church, author of the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act, today issued the following statement on the FBI’s release of 2023 hate crimes statistics:

“According to the FBI’s release of 2023 hate crimes statistics, only 16,009 agencies out of out of 18,800 agencies nationwide participated in hate crimes data collection. The 2023 hate crimes statistics illustrate the urgent need to improve hate crimes reporting across the country – in particular, improving accurate hate crimes reporting from law enforcement agencies representing cities with populations of 100,000 or more.

“At a time when we are seeing the highest number of hate crime incidents against the Jewish community, we need complete and credible reporting. I wrote the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act to do just that.  “The lack of credible and complete national hate crimes data collection poses a significant challenge to prevention efforts. Congress must take action to ensure we have accurate hate crimes data by passing the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act.”