Bellevue Police to join community groups discussing importance of reporting hate crimes

Bellevue hosts community forum to discuss reporting hate crimes

Hate crimes cause a significant amount of fear and intimidation in victims. Law enforcement in east King County believe hate crimes and bias incidents are underreported in their communities.

BELLEVUE, Wash. - The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed nearly 300 hate crime cases since 2018. Approximately half of those cases were based on race and ethnicity.

Hate crimes cause a significant amount of fear and intimidation in victims. Law enforcement in east King County believe hate crimes and bias incidents are underreported in their communities.

"We don’t want our community members to be fearful," said Alicia McKinney, major with Bellevue Police Department. "These crimes are absolutely dehumanizing to an individual. It causes a lot of turmoil and hurt with a person. And so, we want to acknowledge that these crimes happen and actually do something about them."

There are nine hate crimes in Bellevue so far in 2023 involving vandalism or damage. Last year, numbers peaked at 23, up from 11 in the year 2021.

"Bellevue does have that higher prevalence, and that is because we encourage people to report, and we are getting out there and educating the community, and they are coming in and reporting those crimes," said McKinney.

McKinney said anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents were reported the most to the department. Detectives also see other races/ethnicities, religions and sexual orientations targeted.

"We have a duty to make sure our community members are safe," said McKinney. "We know that there’s[sic] barriers to reporting—whether there’s a fear of police, whether there’s fear of retaliation or whatever those barriers might be, we want to be able to address those barriers so our community feels comfortable coming and reporting them to us."

Reporting the crime is how police said more attackers could be held accountable.

Bellevue Police will join departments in Redmond, Kirkland, Bothell, Issaquah and Mercer Island for the Eastside Community Safety Forum about the importance of reporting hate crimes and bias incidents. The agencies are partnering with several diverse organizations to learn more about the actions against their communities.

"We want to reach those communities that we typically don’t hear from. That’s why we’ve partnered with some of our community partners to come in and present as well," said McKinney.

The community forum will be held Aug. 10 at Sammamish High School in Bellevue from 6–8:30 p.m. Free food and childcare will be provided.

"This initiative actually came out of our community through our advisory council members where we were able to integrate not only our community members, but the community’s partners and other parts of the city. It’s good to know that Bellevue is on the leading edge of initiatives like this," said McKinney.

King County proposed the creation of a community-based hate crime hotline to give victims additional access to services. The hotline would also help improve data collection on reported cases.

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The prosecutor’s office has a prosecutor solely dedicated to filing charges against suspects in hate crime cases. 

"We are going to investigate this fully. We are going to hold them accountable and, in partnership with the King County Prosecutor’s Office, they will be prosecuted," said McKinney.