In the wake of a pair of anti-Semitic attacks separated by only three weeks in New York and New Jersey, the NYPD announced on Monday that it intends to add hate crimes to its publicly-available crime database — CompStat — for the first time since the stat-tracking site’s inception.
“The best way to fight hate is to shine a light on it,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a press conference Monday, SILive reports.
CompStat, which tracks major crime in the five boroughs, some misdemeanors and also shooting incidents, among other crimes, will include hate crimes within the coming months, Shea said.
“We are going to proceed cautiously,” the commissioner said, noting that there are technical elements that need to be ironed out before hate crimes can be officially added. “It’s probably going to take a few months to get the behind-the-scenes in order,” he said.