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By Greg deGiere, Civil Rights Advocate, The Arc of California
Assemblyman Phil Ting (D- San Francisco) last week introduced Assembly Bill 449 requiring every state and local law enforcement agency in the state to adopt a hate crime policy guiding officers to recognize suspected hate crimes when they see them.
Under the bill, the agencies’ policies shall instruct officers to consider whether the perpetrator was motivated by bias against the disability of the victim. The bill also includes other provisions related to hate-crimes policy.
Anti-disability hate crimes are the invisible hate crimes. Federal statistics show that there are an estimated 40,000 anti-disability hate crimes per year, but law enforcement agencies report less than 0.4 percent of those to the FBI. In California, we’ve made some progress. But in 2021, California law enforcement agencies reported just 12 anti-disability hate crimes.
Assemblymember Ting’s AB 449 is a follow up to his AB 1947 of last year, sponsored by a broad coalition of civil rights and community groups led by the The Arc & UCP California Collaboration.