LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- The Louisville Metro Police Department is one of 26 law enforcement agencies across the country participating in a challenge to bring more attention to hate crime reports.
The Police Foundation, a non-profit out of Washington, D.C., said hate crimes are under-reported is asking the police departments to make their hate crime reports open to the public, in hopes that it will motivate others to report their own incidents.
“We need to reassure minorities that they need to come forward and they need to report otherwise these hate crimes will never go away,” said Dr. Muhammad Babar, who has had his own experience with hate.
In 2015, the Louisville Islamic Center was heavily vandalized with derogatory words and symbols. The community rallied together to clean it up, but Babar told WHAS11 News the hate still stung.
“It's not a good feeling when you feel like there is someone out there who doesn't like you or your community or the way you look like.”
The open data initiative is one Louisville has already been doing. Since January of last year, LMPD reported 8 hate crimes, with charges ranging from terroristic threatening to harassment and 4th-degree assault. Babar believes there were likely many more not reported.
“These numbers are probably in triple digits,” he said. “The majority of the people are afraid to come forward, and it's very much under-reported.”
As serious as the crime really is, Babar said in the end, no one was ever arrested for the vandalism against the Islamic Center and he hopes this new challenge will also encourage police to do more follow-ups on hate crimes.
To view the hate crimes currently listed on LMPD’s Transparency Page, click here. To view the report by The Police Foundation, click here.