Chief: Lacey Hate Crime Stats Don't Reflect a Trend

Hate crimes in Lacey Township have remained constant over the last few years but the numbers are too low to represent a trend, Police Chief William Nally said.

In the last three years, there have been five hate crimes in Lacey Township but all but one of the crimes targeted individuals, he said.

“I won’t classify any of these crimes as minor,” Nally said. “They’re not violent crimes. They’re people being foolish and insensitive.”

On April 7, an African American female had a run-in with a man who had a confederate flag on his pickup truck.

In August 2010, a juvenile female was harassed by an ex-boyfriend who made despairing remarks about her Jewish faith. Just days later, in an unrelated incident, the Star of David was painted on the windshield of a 37-year-old woman’s car.

In June 2009, graffiti that was bias in nature was painted on township property at Mezera Park.

Nally said that the hate crime reports are filed to “maintain a feel of the town” but since just one to two are reported annually, a conclusion on any trends cannot be made.

Towns similar in population also had low figures in 2010. Livingston Township with a population of 27,775 had one race related hate crime. Mount Olive, with a population of 26,431 had two race related hate crime and one ethnicity. Paramus at 26,340 had one race hate crime.

The statistics were recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The FBI requires police departments to report crimes that are motivated by the offender’s bias.

According to the UCR website motivation is subjective, making it difficult to determine whether a crime resulted from the offender’s bias. Law enforcement investigation must find sufficient evidence in order to deem an incident as a hate crime.

Below are Lacey’s statistics:

2011

2010

2009

Race

0

1

1

Religion

2

0

0

Sexual Orientation

0

0

0

Ethnicity

0

0

0