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After 152% spike, NYPD changes how it reports hate crimes
By
Ben Feuerherd
Published Mar 11, 2026
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By
Ben Feuerherd
Published Mar 11, 2026
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A month after the NYPD reported a 152% spike in reported bias crimes in the city, the department has changed its reporting method to one that some hate crime experts say is less transparent and less accurate.
In January, the NYPD reported 58 bias crimes across the city, up from 23 in January 2025 — a jump the department said was driven largely by a spike in reports of anti-Jewish hate crimes. But by the time police reported the figures for February of this year, they had changed their criteria for reporting hate crimes.
Previously, the department reported hate crimes that were being reviewed. Now it only reports hate crimes that have been investigated and confirmed. Under the new method, the NYPD reported 38 hate crimes for the month. It did not provide a comparison to the same period last year.
The NYPD says only reporting confirmed hate crimes will more accurately show what’s happening in the city. But two scholars who study hate-crime reporting cautioned that it’s likely not that simple. They said the new method could make it look like hate crimes are dropping when they’re not.
“It would be erroneous to consider that’s a drop in hate crimes," said Frank Pezzella, a professor at John Jay College and author of the book "The Measurement of Hate Crimes in America."
Three hate crime experts who spoke to Gothamist said the NYPD should publicly report both the number of reported hate crimes and those confirmed by the NYPD. The department did not respond to the experts’ suggestion.
The shift in how the NYPD reports hate crimes comes at a divisive political moment, driven in part by ongoing and escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Antisemitism has been on the rise across the country and remains persistently high in New York City, according to NYPD figures from 2025.
Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, spent thousands of dollars on personal security during his campaign, citing a sharp rise in threats against him. The mayor has frequently been a target of anti-Muslim rhetoric, including during this weekend's rally by a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and far-right influencer outside Gracie Mansion, which ended shortly after two men among a crowd of counterprotestors allegedly tried to detonate explosives.
The mayor’s office was not involved in the decision to change how hate crimes are reported by the NYPD, City Hall spokesperson Sam Raskin said.
Making it to the end stage
Brendan Lantz, the director of Hate Crime Research and Policy Institute at Florida State University, said there are several problems with tracking only hate crimes that have been confirmed by police. He said there are a number of reasons not all reported hate crimes are confirmed.
If a victim stops cooperating with police, for example, a legitimate hate crime could go unconfirmed, he said.
Many victims of hate crimes are from communities that traditionally have strained relationships with police and may be reluctant to cooperate, Pezzella said.
In some cases, police may not find sufficient evidence to confirm that a hate crime occurred when one actually did, Lantz said. He added that police departments may face pressure to pay more attention to the complaints of some populations than others.
“There’s all kinds of things that can stand in between finding enough evidence to call a hate crime founded … that is not necessarily a direct result of if it’s a hate crime or not,” he said.
Hate crimes that are not clear cut can easily be mislabeled, and not ultimately confirmed, he added.
Prior to the shift in the reporting policy, Lantz said he viewed the NYPD as an agency that did a pretty good job at reporting hate crime statistics.
“I always emphasize that the agencies that do it well, they look like they have a lot of hate crime,” he said.
Call for more data
A third expert, Columbia University Professor Donald Green, said hate crime reporting is complicated.
On one hand, watchdog groups tend to argue that hate crimes are undercounted because victims are reluctant to come forward. On the other hand, police departments find many of the allegations reported to them do not actually meet the legal definition of hate crimes, Green said.
He added that community initiatives could encourage victims to come forward and report hate crimes, which could produce a spike. Green said that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a spike in hate crimes — just a spike in those being reported.
Lantz added that reporting both sets of data could provide important context to address hate crimes in the city.
“I think there's value in knowing which ones did the NYPD find to be hate crimes,” Lantz said.
“But I always emphasize that if we want to address something as a social problem, we need to measure it well,” he added. “And that means not just measuring the ones that make it to that end stage … but actually tracking all of those that come to attention with police.”
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new york city
nypd
public safety
Ben Feuerherd
Ben Feuerherd covers public safety and policing for WNYC and Gothamist. He previously covered federal courts for The New York Post and The Messenger. His work has also appeared in POLITICO, the Daily Beast and NBC New York. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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