The number of hate crimes reported to Toronto police in 2016 were up 8 per cent from the year before but arrests were down.
According to a report that will be considered by the Toronto Police Services Board on Thursday, there was a total of 145 hate/bias crimes reported to the TPS in 2016 compared to 134 in 2015.
It should be noted that the number of hate/bias crimes reported to police in 2016 was not far off the 10-year average of 141.
In terms of arrests, there were a total of 11 people taken into custody for hate/bias crimes 2016. In 2015, police arrested 19 people as a result of hate/bias crimes investigations.
“As in previous years, the number of arrests for hate/bias motivated offences was attributed to allegations of mischief to property (i.e. graffiti) in circumstances where there was little or no suspect description available. These occurrences frequently transpired without the victim or any witnesses present. These factors significantly added to the challenges in investigating hate/bias motivated offences and arresting suspects,” the report states.
The most common hate/bias crimes reported to police in 2016 were mischief to property, assault and criminal harassment.
The report said that the Jewish community was the most targeted group when it came to instances of mischief to property while the L.G.B.T.Q. community was the most targeted group in terms of assault and the Muslim community was the most targeted when it came to criminal harassment.
The most victimized group overall in 2016 was the Jewish community followed by the L.G.B.T.Q. community and the black community.
