Implementing Controversial Policy: Results from a National Survey of Law Enforcement Department Activity on Hate Crime

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Local police are responsible for implementing a patchwork of federal, state, and local policies addressing crimes motivated by bias or hate toward particular groups. The research presented here examines police department activity on implementing hate crime policy, with particular attention to hate crime policies related to lesbians and gays, by using survey and demographic data from a sample of American cities. The results suggest that many police departments are trying to implement hate crime policies and improve relations with minority communities. Hate crime policy implementation is shaped by the support and efforts of officers, the tractability of the problem, the support of police leaders, the presence of state hate crime policies, police resources, and public opinion. Interestingly, implementation efforts do not appear to be influenced by the preferences of elected officials, local hate crime policies, or a series of administrative procedures for hate crime cases.