Report shows first decline in police-reported hate crimes since 2019
Posted Mar 18, 2025 03:14:37 PM.
Last Updated Mar 18, 2025 03:14:42 PM.
The Waterloo Regional Police Services Board will provided an update at its meeting on Wednesday about the number of hate-motivated police-reported crimes in the municipality in 2024.
The report was compiled by the Community Safety Partnerships division, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion division and the Strategic Services Branch.
The highlight would be a 36 per cent reduction in the number of police-reported hate-motived crimes last year. That number dropped from 369 in 2023 to 237 in 2024. It’s the first marked decline since at least 2019.
The report cautions that since 2019, hate-motivated crimes have risen by an average of 43 incidents per year, so it remains to be seen if 2024 was an anomaly or the start of a new trend.
Last year, the majority of hate-motivated crimes were violent offences while in the previous five years mischief related crimes were most common, things like hate-motivated graffiti. The report shows the decrease in mischief crimes accounts for 41 per cent of the overall decrease in hate motived crimes between 2023 and 2024.
The most common type of hate-motivated crime was race motived. The majority targeting the Black community, and the was spike in hate toward South Asian individuals that began in 2023 continued in 2024.
Hate crimes based on religion was directed at the Jewish community, followed by the Muslim community.
The 2SLGBTQ+ community was the most common target for hate based on sexual orientation.
In 2023, Combatting Hate was identified as a regional priority under the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan.
This year WRPS will be hosting its first Hate Crime Conference on April 14 to 16, 2025. Speakers from both the policing and academic spheres will present on best practices in responding to hate.
