Today, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released two reports, detailing the volume and nature of crime identified as hate crime and violence against the state’s law enforcement officers. The annual studies compile crime data submitted to TBI by the state’s law enforcement agencies through the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS).
Among the findings from ‘Tennessee Hate Crime 2017’:
- Overall, the number of offenses in which the bias was known increased from 180 in 2016 to 199 in 2017.
- Males (54.7%) were victimized at a higher rate than females (45.3%).
- Simple Assault was the most frequently reported bias-motivated offense in 2017.
- 80.6% of hate crime offenders were male.
- 10.2% of offenses designated as hate crimes were committed by juveniles.
Among the findings in “Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA) 2017”:
- The number of LEOKA victims increased by 14.7 % year-to-year, with 2,137 victims reported in 2017.
- In 2017, there were no Law Enforcement Officers reported as being feloniously killed in the line of duty.
- The most frequently reported LEOKA offense was Simple Assault at 53.7%.
As with all of its crime publications, the TBI cautions against using the data provided in these reports to compare one jurisdiction to another. The factors impacting crime vary from community to community and accordingly, comparisons are considered neither fair nor accurate.
Both reports are currently available for review on the TBI’s website: www.tn.gov/tbi
