ProPublica: Hate crimes data

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the state open records law, Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. Secs. 39-121 to 39-122 and 39-128, I hereby request the following records:

Any database or other records of hate crimes or crimes evidencing bias of race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin or disability reported to or investigated by your agency since Jan. 1, 2010, containing at least the following fields:

the incident number
date of the incident
whether the crime was against individuals or a business / property
number of victims
race or ethnicity of the victims
gender of the victims
the offense classification
the location of the incident
the bias motivation (anti-black, anti-muslim, etc)

I would like the records in a machine-readable, electronic format if possible. If the records are kept in another format, or kept individually, I would still like copies.

This request is made as part of the Documenting Hate Project, a collaboration involving dozens of news organizations, led by ProPublica. Coverage from the project is compiled at https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/hatecrimes#hatecrime-coverage.

This request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I would request your response within ten (10) business days.

Sincerely,

Ken Schwencke

Thanks, Nik!

Ken Schwencke
ProPublica
w: 917-512-0253
c: 561-756-6135

Det. Rasheta,

Thanks so much. I have two questions -- one is that 2012 has two incident numbers in green. Do you know why? It appears that they're the same incident number, which I assume means they're highlighted to point out that they're the same incident.

The other is that I've made this request to hundreds of police departments in the past few months, and your data matches up with what was reported to the FBI much better than most. In fact, the only difference appears to be in 2012, where 2 incidents were reported to the FBI, and 5 appear on your spreadsheet.

Can you tell me a little bit about how the Mesa PD tracks hate crimes and what it does with the information (ie, how is it used outside of reporting to the FBI, if at all)? Also, do you know why 2012 appears to be the only year where the counts differ?

Thanks,
Ken Schwencke
ProPublica
w: 917-512-0253
c: 561-756-6135