Requires every sheriff, county or city commissioner of correction and head of every state, county, or local police department to report instances and occurrences of hate crimes; requires the division to promulgate rules and regulations for such reporting.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5386A
SPONSOR: Bores TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to reporting of hate
crimes by law enforcement departments
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To ensure that hate crime data is accurately reported to Federal law
enforcement.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one: Provides a short title.
Section two: Requires law enforcement to report hate crime data in a
manner prescribed by the department.
Section three: Provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Before we can solve a problem, we need to accurately understand its
scope. This was the rationale behind the FBI's implementation of the
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Well-intentioned, the
system centralized the scattered world of hate crime reporting into a
central Federal database, allowing Federal law enforcement to trace hate
incidents in all fifty states. Unfortunately, reporting to this system,
which comes from local police departments, has been spotty and unreli-
able.
Many police departments have not reported their data to the FBI, largely
due to administrative and technical hurdles. The older system used to
report these crimes leaves out critical data about the time, place, and
nature of the hate crime. As a result of this lack of understanding as
to where hate crimes truly occur, resources (both local and Federal) are
misappropriated.
This bill requires police departments to report to Federal law enforce-
ment, while also allowing DCJS to set the specifics of the timeline and
implementation, so as to not add undue burdens to law enforcement in
situations where their technical resources are limited.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
None.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on January 1, 2026.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5386--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BORES, YEGER, BERGER, WIEDER, EICHENSTEIN, LEE,
P. CARROLL, O'PHARROW, BURROUGHS -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Codes -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to reporting of hate
crimes by law enforcement departments
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "hate crime
2 accountability and transparency enforcement (HATE) reporting act".
3 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 837-z to
4 read as follows:
5 § 837-z. Reporting duties of law enforcement departments with respect
6 to hate crimes. 1. Every sheriff, county or city commissioner of
7 correction and head of every state, county, or local police depart-
8 ment, shall report to the division, in a manner and timeframe as deter-
9 mined by the division, any instance or occurrence in which a hate crime,
10 as defined in section 485.05 of the penal law, is reported or investi-
11 gated. Such reports shall be transmitted to the division such that
12 the division may provide such hate crime data to the federal bureau of
13 investigation in a manner consistent with the requirements of the
14 National Incident-Based Reporting System.
15 2. The division shall promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate
16 the reporting of hate crime data to the division by law enforcement
17 departments as required pursuant to subdivision one of this section.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect January 1, 2026.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07926-02-5
