NASHVILLE – On Tuesday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Statistical Analysis Center released two new publications, one detailing the volume and nature of hate crime in Tennessee, and the other detailing violence directed toward the state’s law enforcement officers.

Among the findings of ‘Tennessee Hate Crime 2020’:

• The number of offenses categories with a known bias motivation increased from 113 in 2019 to 118 in 2020, but decreased from 2018’s total of 168.
• Bias-motivated offenses categorized as Crimes Against Persons accounted for 80% of all hate crimes in 2020.
• Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry Bias accounted for 67.5% of reportable known bias motivation categories, while the second most frequently reported bias was Sexual Orientation Bias, accounting for 20%.

Among the findings of ‘Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted (LEOKA) 2020’:

• The total number of reported LEOKA incidents decreased by 4.3% from 2019 to 2020.
• The offense of Simple Assault continues to be the highest reported LEOKA offense, with a total of 1,293 in 2020.
• Zero LEOKA murders were reported in 2020.

“I am very proud of the efforts of all participating law enforcement agencies, to provide the data necessary to produce these reports,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “Our combined efforts have resulted in a successful program that continues to give our state helpful insight on the volume and nature of crime.”

Both reports can be viewed and downloaded on the TBI’s website: https://www.tn.gov/tbi/divisions/cjis-division/recent-publications.html.