Can’t beat the problem? Just hide the fact that it exists.

Just one month after acknowledging a dramatic surge in hate crimes—driven largely by attacks on Jews—the New York City Police Department has quietly changed the way it reports hate crime statistics, a move that could hide the true scale of antisemitism in the city.

In January, the NYPD reported a 152% spike from the same period a year prior, that officials themselves said was fueled largely by rising anti-Jewish incidents.

But by the time the department released its February figures, the methodology had changed.

Previously, the NYPD publicly reported all hate crimes that had been reported and were under review. Under the new system, however, the department will only report hate crimes that have already been fully investigated and confirmed by police.

The immediate effect of the change was dramatic. Using the new criteria, the NYPD reported 38 hate crimes in February—without providing any comparison to the same period last year.

Experts who study hate crime data warn that the shift could create the appearance that hate crimes are declining even when they are not.

In other words, the number may look smaller—but the underlying reality may not be.

The change raises an uncomfortable question: Is the NYPD measuring hate crimes—or managing the optics around them?

Several scholars who study hate crime reporting say the department should release both sets of numbers: the total number of hate crimes reported to police and the number that investigators ultimately confirm.

The NYPD has not responded to that suggestion.

Experts say there are numerous reasons why a legitimate hate crime might never make it into the “confirmed” category the NYPD now reports. Victims sometimes stop cooperating with investigators. In other cases, evidence proving motive may be difficult to obtain. And members of communities with strained relationships with police may be reluctant to continue engaging with investigators.

The result is that many legitimate incidents never make it to the final “confirmed” category, even when bias clearly played a role. Under the NYPD’s new reporting approach, those incidents effectively vanish from public view.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)