I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 188
To establish Federal, State, and local programs for the investigation,
reporting, and prevention of bias crimes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 7, 1997
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish Federal, State, and local programs for the
investigation, reporting, and prevention of bias crimes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) 5,932 hate crimes were reported to the Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation in 1994;
(2) bias crimes are far more lethal than other
kinds of attacks, with hospitalization of victims oc-
curring four times more often than for other as-
saults;
(3) 1,843 anti-Semitic incidents were reported
to the Anti-Defamation League in 1995, including
118 incidents on college campuses;
(4) membership in Neo-Nazi groups has in-
creased from 1,500 in 12 States in 1988 to 3,500
in 40 States in 1994;
(5) only 7,356 of the more than 16,000 law en-
forcement agencies furnished hate crime data to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1994; and
(6) Federal, State, and local law enforcement
officials have indicated that training in the area of
bias crimes is inconsistent and officials repeatedly
cite the need for uniform training of officers in the
investigation and prevention of bias crime.
SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTOR.
The Attorney General shall appoint in the Depart-
ment of Justice a National Director of Bias Crime (herein-
after referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Director’’).
SEC. 3. DUTIES OF DIRECTOR.
The Director shall, in cooperation with the appro-
priate Federal, State, and local agencies, including the De-
partment of the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation, and the Community Relations Service of the De-
partment of Justice—
(1) examine the needs of Federal, State, and
local law enforcement agencies in training officers
for the investigation and reporting of bias crimes;
(2) recommend to the Attorney General policy
options for the enhancement of bias crime interdic-
tion and prevention;
(3) determine a national curriculum for a train-
the-trainer program to be administered by the Fed-
eral Law Enforcement Training Center;
(4) determine a national curriculum for officer
training in investigation and reporting of bias crimes
to be delivered through the Federal Law Enforce-
ment Training Center;
(5) coordinate the bias crime efforts of the De-
partment of the Treasury, Department of Edu-
cation, Department of Justice, Federal Law En-
forcement Training Center, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the Community Relations Service
of the Department of Justice;
(6) develop a national curriculum to be taught
as a preventative measure at elementary and second-
ary schools throughout the country;
(7) make available to law enforcement agencies
materials, prepared by Federal, State, local, and vic-
tims’ rights organizations, pertinent to bias crime
investigation and prevention;
(8) coordinate technical assistance provided to
State and local law enforcement agencies related to
the prevention, investigation and prosecution of bias
crime;
(9) coordinate assistance to victims of bias
crime; and
(10) award grants to States that have estab-
lished lead agencies to coordinate efforts to combat
bias crime and developed innovative programs con-
sistent with the purposes of this Act.
SEC. 4. TRAINING REQUIREMENTS.
The training programs established by the Director,
acting through the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center and in cooperation with the Secretary of the Treas-
ury shall include, at a minimum, the following:
(1) Recognition of basic elements of bias crimes
and proper initial response procedures.
(2) Instruction on how to comply with all Fed-
eral reporting requirements under the National Hate
Crimes Statistics Act.