Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 15:27:39 CST From: "Edwards, Kathleen" The Hate Crimes Statistics Act, signed into law April 23, 1990, established a way of monitoring crimes linked to religious, racial, sexual orientation or ethnic bias. The U.S. General Attorney established guidelines for collecting data. The FBI consolidated the National Hate Crime Collection Project within the existing Uniform Crime Report Summary and National Incident-Based Reporting Systems. The Act mandates publication of an annual summary of data collected by the states' law enforcement agencies. The Act does not compel participation nor give compensation to local or state law enforcement agencies. Participation is voluntary and therefore data collected and published is incomplete. I recently received copies of testimony from oversight hearings held by Sen Paul Simon's office. It is worth noting that 12 % of hate crimes reported in 1993 were based on sexual orientation bias. Kansas, the home of one of the most visible hate criminals since Adolf Hitler, has only one participating law enforcement agency serving a population of 15,784 reporting zero hate crimes for 1994! Why is participation by Kansas law enforcement agencies so low and what can be done to encourage a more realistic approach to this problem in your state?