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New data released by the Portland Police Bureau shows reports of bias crimes in the city skyrocketed last year, easily doubling their 2022 total.
That year, there were 55 reports, a number that had held steady since Oregon overhauled its hate crime laws in 2019. But last year, the number shot up to 129.
Anti-Black crimes remain the most common. Crimes targeting Jewish people tripled. And police made an arrest in 1 in 3 cases in which they identified a suspect.
The most frequent sorts of crimes, according to Police Bureau, were assaults, followed by vandalism.
These trends reflect a nationwide rise in hate crimes. A recent draft report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that hate crimes rose 11% in the nation’s 10 largest cities last year.
The rise in Portland, however, could be more due to better reporting than an increase in criminal activity.
“We are seeing better reporting, which isn’t on accident,” says Sgt. Matt Jacobsen, a detective in the bureau’s major crimes unit. “We’ve worked hard on outreach to impacted communities to educate on bias events and inform on how to report.”
As part of a national campaign, the FBI put up billboards at Portland International Airport and along highways across Oregon encouraging people to report hate crimes.