Californians who experience a hate crime or hate incident can now report it to the state’s Civil Rights Department through a new hotline. Established to report non-emergencies, the CA vs. Hate hotline and online portal can be used by anyone who has personally experienced or witnessed a hate crime or incident.
The hotline is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 833-866-4283 or 833-8-NO-HATE. Callers can speak with a trained civil rights professional in more than 200 languages. Outside of the available hours, individuals can call 211 or leave a voicemail to report an incident. Online reports can be made at any time of day in 15 languages.
The California Civil Rights Department established the hotline and online portal to help support people and communities who are targeted for hate by helping them identify their options after an incident. The agency also seeks to improve hate incident and crime reporting data to help prevent such incidents in the future.
The department defines hate incidents as “a hostile expression or action that may be motivated by bias against another person’s actual or perceived identity(ies),” such as race, color, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender, including gender identity. The department says hate incidents can either be acts of hate that are not crimes but violate civil rights laws or acts of hate that may not violate the law but still cause significant harm in a community.
Hate crimes are defined under California law as “a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of one or more of the following actual or perceived characteristics of the victim: disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation; or because of the person’s association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics.”
According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, reported hate crimes increased 33% from 2020 to 2021 and were at their highest reported level since 2001. Reported hate crimes targeting Black people were most prevalent, increasing 12.5%; reported anti-Asian hate crimes increased most dramatically, increasing 177% between 2020 and 2021.
Reports to CA vs. Hate can be made anonymously. The civil rights agency recommends that people who are in immediate danger resulting from a hate incident call 911 because the hotline is not a law enforcement reporting portal.