The FBI released its annual report on hate crimes this week, showing an increase of more than 1,000 reported incidents nationwide, but numbers remained steady in the Centennial state compared to prior years.
Since 2014, the number of reported hate crime incidents in Colorado has fluctuated between 96 and 107, despite population changes.
In Colorado last year, 106 hate crime incidents were reported. Among that number, 61 of the incidents were related to race and ancestry, 26 were biased against religion, 18 against sexual orientation, and one report each for crimes toward those with disabilities, gender and gender identity.
In southern Colorado, Colorado Springs had one reported hate crime in 2017, Pueblo had two, Monument had one, Canon City reported one and Trinidad also reported one incident.
- Colorado Springs: 1 incident with a bias against religion
- Pueblo: 2 incidents with a bias against race/ancestry
- El Paso County: 2 incidents related to race/ancestry, 1 incident with a bias related to sexual orientation
- Canon City: 1 incident with a bias against religion
- Monument: 1 incident with a bias against race/ancestry
- Trinidad: 1 incident with a bias against race/ancestry
- Huerfano County: 1 incident related to bias against religion
A total of 221 law enforcement agencies in Colorado reported data to the FBI.
Nationally, the trend appears darker.
The number of hate crime incidents increased by more than 1,000 from 2016. However, the FBI said it had more than 1,000 more agencies reporting in 2017 compared to 2016.
The data also showed the first-ever three-year increase. However, the number of reported incidents is much lower than in the nationwide high of 9,730 incidents in 2001.
The state with the highest number of incidents per resident was Kentucky, which reported 378 incidents among its estimated population of 4,444,239 residents.
The state with the lowest number of hate crimes was Mississippi, which reported one in 2017.
Click here to view the full report.
