Report 2017-131 Recommendation 10 Responses

Report 2017-131: Hate Crimes in California: Law Enforcement Has Not Adequately Identified, Reported, or Responded to Hate Crimes (Release Date: May 2018)

Recommendation #10 To: San Francisco State University

To ensure that they accurately identify and report hate crimes, SFSU Police and LA Police should update their hate crime policies and procedures, and the Orange County Sheriff and Stanislaus County Sheriff should implement supplemental hate crime reports and require officers to use them.

60-Day Agency Response

SFSU has updated our hate crimes policies and procedures, implemented supplemental hate crime reports, and required officers to use those reports. Training on our hate crimes policy and procedures will be completed on an annual basis. The record of participants for the training

sessions will be maintained with the Services Division of the University Police Department.

The most recent training on our updated hate crimes policy and procedures was completed with all department staff on July 18, 2018. The training consisted of an in-depth review of the updated hate crimes policy and a guided discussion on the following items; procedures for correct classification of hate crimes, supplemental report and documentation procedures, and investigative resources. The training was conduct by a Sergeant from the University Police Department's Profession Standards & Training Unit.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed SFSU's new policy and found that it no longer incorrectly states that if a crime lacks a specific target or victim, it should be classified as a hate incident. State law indicates that officers investigating a hateful criminal act do not necessarily have to identify a clearly specified victim to consider the act a hate crime, as long as the crime was committed based on an association with a victim with a protected characteristic.

All Recommendations in 2017-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.