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Assemblymember Janet Nguyen is proud to announce that Assembly Bill 485 has been signed by the Governor. AB 485 requires local law enforcement agencies to post current hate crime and hate crime related statistics to their public internet site and update them on a monthly basis.
According to the Department of Justice’s 2021 report, hate crimes in California have reached their highest reported level in a decade, reaching 1,763 overall hate crimes with Asian hate crimes rising an astonishing 177.5%.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a shocking rise in hate crimes and attacks, specifically targeting the Asian-American community” said Assemblymember Janet Nguyen. “We need to feel safe within our own communities and this bill is an important step in making that happen.”
Currently, there is no requirement for local law enforcement agencies to post or display regularly updated statistics on hate crimes or related issues. They are only required to report hate crime data to the Department of Justice on an annual basis. According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, “…by the time this information is collected, summarized and posted, it has already become outdated…the public needs current information to help inform their decisions about how to best protect themselves and reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of a hate crime.
AB 485 received support from the legal and law enforcement community including the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association and enjoyed bi-partisan support through the legislative process.
The recently signed legislation is part of an anti-Asian hate crimes package that Assemblymember Janet Nguyen unveiled during a press conference last year. In addition to AB 485, the Assemblymember introduced AB 1336 which would have created a hate crimes task force through the Board of State and Community Corrections and allowed local law enforcement to participate on the task force.
