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Commissioner Levin says data-merge problems and underreporting masked larger 2023 rise in hate crimes
Summary
At the California Commission on the State of Hate meeting Oct. 23, Commissioner Levin presented 2023 hate-crime data showing major reporting gaps — especially a Los Angeles data-merge failure — and warned that preliminary national figures understate increases for multiple bias categories.
Commissioner Brian Levin told the California Commission on the State of Hate on Oct. 23 that 2023 national hate-crime statistics understate the true scope of incidents because of reporting and data-integration problems.
Levin said many jurisdictions participate in federal reporting but that an incomplete merge of Los Angeles data into a new platform omitted almost half of preliminary victim records. "Because almost half of the victims that are in the preliminary data in Los Angeles have not shown up successfully merged into the new data platform," Levin said, "we would have had double the percentage increase had that been counted." He warned that this artificially depressed the headline numbers that guide public-policy attention.
Levin reviewed bias-category trends, noting the FBI reported a 63% rise in anti-Jewish incidents while his research showed a 48% increase in top cities. He said the FBI also reported the highest anti-Muslim incidents since 2017, and that other categories — anti-Asian incidents, anti-Arab incidents, disability-related incidents and anti-transgender incidents — show troubling increases in many places.
Levin emphasized that agency participation is important but inconsistent. "We had over 16,000 agencies participate, which is a multiyear high," he said, "but almost all of those agencies reported 0," creating geographic and demographic "informational deserts" where victims' experiences are invisible in official counts.
When commissioners asked about data sources and causes, Levin said national reporting began in 1991 and pointed to two main drivers of the undercount: (1) local agencies' antiquated computer systems that fail to export into the FBI's newer incident-based reporting system (NIBRS) and (2) low victim reporting in some communities. He also linked spikes in some categories to political rhetoric and election-year dynamics, saying the commission should pay attention to both short-term surges and long-term trends.
In the public-comment and Q&A period, commissioners and attendees pushed for clearer public access to subcommittee materials, more accessible reporting pathways for victims, and broader dissemination of training materials. Levin offered to travel statewide to help community groups and urged the commission to use its forum to bring legislators and other stakeholders into the conversation.
The commission did not take a formal vote on policy from Levin's presentation; the session concluded with further discussion about outreach, training dissemination, and community forums in early December.
