Gov. Ned Lamont, members of the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council, and judicial and law enforcement officials teased proposed changes to the state’s hate crime statutes during a press conference on January 30.

According to a press release from Lamont’s office, full details on the proposal will be released on February 5 at the same time the governor releases his biennial budget proposal and other legislative proposals.

Sachin Pandya, a member of the Hate Crimes Advisory Council and professor at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Law, said the proposal will put all existing hate crime statutes in one place in state statute, add hate crime enhancements for physical injuries or property damage, extend the attorney general’s authority to bring civil action on behalf of hate crime victims, and label hate crimes as hate crimes in state statute.

Pandya, as well as others who spoke at the press conference announcing the proposal, noted that the state’s hate crimes are currently not called that within state law.

The 21 existing hate crime statutes, some of which date back to 1990, are spread across state statutes rather than contained in a single chapter. According to Pandya, the lack of consolidation in the statutes affects how police charge hate crimes, as well as how prosecutors handle hate crime cases. Pandya added that the existing statutes also do not consistently protect the same groups of people and have different requirements to prove intent.

He further stated that the changes will the state doesn’t tolerate “harming or threatening anyone” due to protected categories like race, gender, or sexual identity.

Chief state’s attorney Patrick Griffin said the changes will reshape the state’s existing hate crime statutes to send a “clear, unambiguous message to the people of the state that we are not indifferent to hate.”

According to a press release from Lamont’s office, the changes will also modify the intent portion of hate crimes laws to more closely align with other states by “removing the element that a defendant must have acted ‘maliciously.'” Per the press release, Lamont supports the intent of existing hate crime statutes but “has received reports from police and prosecutors who’ve noted that as these laws have become modified and heightened over the years, they’ve become scattered within various sections of the Connecticut General Statutes and contain some inconsistent terminology, complicating the ability of these laws to actually be used in the prosecution of crimes.”

According to Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) commissioner Ronnell Higgins, the hate crimes unit within the Connecticut state police has seen a 50 percent rise since 2021, with “nearly all” incidents involving race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Speakers at the press conference also touted the work being done by the council, which was created by Lamont in 2021, including the creation of an online tool where the public can report alleged hate crime incidents.

Michelle Querijero, a statutory appointee to the committee, said hate crime incidents in the state are “vastly, systemically under-reported” and that a public-facing portal where residents can report information about hate crimes, such as the date, location, time, and type of bias, directly to the state. She added that the reports will be analyzed by UConn and that the portal will enable the state to “obtain an accurate understanding of hate.”

Ken Barone, a project manager at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at UConn, said Connecticut is one of the first states to utilize a public-facing portal to report hate crimes.

Recently, hate crime reporting systems like Connecticut’s have drawn concern from free speech organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Following a report from the Washington Free Beacon that noted ambiguities in how hate crime reporting hotlines that exist around the country work and potential First Amendment concerns they may raise, FIRE published an explainer stating that these types of systems “actively solicit reports of speech and behavior that are not only not crimes, but also First-Amendment protected speech” and may chill speech.

In an attempt to learn more about Connecticut’s hate crimes reporting system and how reported incidents are handled, Inside Investigator has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Division of Criminal Justice, which houses the Hate Crimes Advisory Council, for responses to its portal and followup email communication about reported incidents.

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.