FBI releases 2018 Hate Crime Report; numbers nearly double in Texas

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Earlier this week, the FBI released its 2018 Hate Crime Report, and several towns in our area are on the list.

On a national level, hate crimes have gone down since the 2017 report, but taking a closer look at the state level, here in Texas, reported hate crimes have more than doubled.

In 2017, the FBI had 192 hate crimes reported in Texas, and in the 2018 report, that number has jumped to 457.

There were none on the list in Amarillo but there were three reported in Potter County.

Capt. John Coffee with the Potter County Sheriff’s Office explained exactly what a hate crime is, saying:

“A hate crime is an offense against a person or property motivated by an offender’s bias against their race, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

Other hate crimes reported in our area include one in Deaf Smith County, one in Borger, two in Canyon, two in Pampa, nine in Dumas, and 25 in Plainview.

We want to point out, this spike in Texas could be because the FBI depends on these local agencies to report hate crimes to the bureau. So some agencies may not have submitted individual statistics in years’ past.

To see the full report, and list of different cities and counties included, click here.