hate crimes

The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office has released new protocols for how police departments should handle hate crimes.

The aim is to help law enforcement better identify and report hate crimes and civil rights violations in New Hampshire.

Bias incidents and hate crimes are underreported nationwide each year. According to a press release from the Attorney General's office, 48 departments in the state did not submit any information to the FBI related to hate crimes in 2017.

The University of New Hampshire will receive about $840,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to complete a national study on hate crimes.

Lisa Jones, research associate professor of pshycology at UNH, is head investigator on the project. She says the FBI has a program where it collects information on hate crime statistics from local law enforcement. But reporting from those local agencies is voluntary.

There were 40 hate crimes reported in the state last year, the highest number of bias-related incidents since 2010.

The annual hate crimes statistics figures released by the FBI on Monday finds that fifteen of the hate crimes reported in the state last year were associated with race or ethnicity.