TBI Reports both Hate Crimes and Crimes against Law Enforcement Increased in 2018

TBI Press Release by Josh DeVine

NASHVILLE – Today, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released two publications, detailing the volume and nature of hate crime in Tennessee and violence directed toward the state’s law enforcement officers.

Among the findings of ‘Tennessee Hate Crime 2018’:

• Overall, the number of incidents indicated as bias-motivated increased by 1.0%.
• Property-crime related offenses accounted for 24.9%, with the remainder of bias-motivated crimes being those designated as being ‘Crimes Against Persons.’
• Assault offenses were the most frequently reported bias-motivated offenses in 2018.
• Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias was the most frequently reported known bias in 2018 at 55.6%, with Anti-Black/African-American comprising 31.6% of the total reported number of hate crime.

Among the findings of ‘Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA) 2018’:

• In 2018, there were a total of 2,313 LEOKA victims reported across Tennessee.
• The number of reported LEOKA offenses increased by 27.6% from 2015 to 2018.
• The most frequently reported offense was Simple Assault, at 55.8%.

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“I am very proud of the efforts of all participating law enforcement agencies, to provide the data necessary to produce these reports,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “Our combined efforts have resulted in a successful program that continues to give our state helpful insight on the volume and nature of crime.”

Both reports are available for review and download on the TBI’s website: https://www.tn.gov/tbi/divisions/cjis-division/recent-publications.html.