Orange County residents are spending another Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the dark on how much hate there is a year after county supervisors stripped away a large portion of their reporting on hate incidents.

The shift came after county supervisors opted to gag the commission that created their annual hate crime and incident report and remove any mention of hate incidents last year, saying there were too many different interpretations of “hate incident” for it to be an accurate statistic. 

[Read: An Incomplete Picture: Tackling Hate Crimes in Orange County]

In the opening of their 2024 report, county staff noted their work “does not encompass all hate activity in OC as there is underreporting of both hate crimes and hate incidents,” and noted a 2024 survey estimated approximately 1 in 10 county residents experienced an act of hate that year.

To view a copy of the report, click here. 

“Due to the underreporting, anonymity in reporting, and multiple agencies that collect information with different definitions of hate incidents, hate incidents are not included in this report,” staff wrote.  

The report was quietly released at the end of last year.

Michael Kent, a OC Human Relations Commissioner and Irvine Police Chief, said there is underreporting when it comes to hate crimes and more trust needs to be fostered between law enforcement agencies and residents to ensure more people report such crimes.

“There’s just so much happening in the state, in the country, in the world, and the numbers are not accurately depicting what’s truly happening, and it’s no fault to those that are collecting the data. I mean, that’s just what’s being reported,” he said at the commission’s November meeting.

Federal Law enforcement guards an entrance where immigration enforcement drives in with vans to the ICE processing facility on Monday, June 9, 2025. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC

It comes amid a federal immigration crackdown that some local leaders and activists say have relied on racial profiling tactics.

Kent said he is curious to see how many reports of hate crimes will be related to immigration enforcement experienced last year.

“I’ve heard reports of hate crimes or hate incidents involving federal agents and how the victims are being profiled or stopped just because of the way they look, or how well they speak English so that that is something I’m trying to track internally, even though it’s a little bit challenging,” he said.

He added that local law enforcement does not enforce immigration laws.

County Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who was just renamed chair of the board, said he wants to expand the size of the OC Human Relations Commission and restore its ability to speak in a Wednesday interview. 

“If I have a chance I’ll see if I can maybe do something before the year is out to get the size back up,” Chaffee said. “I think they should also have the right to speak publicly.” 

But when asked about reporting hate incidents, Chaffee said it was a complicated issue, and that he wanted to ensure the county was in line with state laws on reporting. 

“It starts with the incidents being reported, and if there are incidents that are not reported, then we can’t consider whether it is a hate crime,” Chaffee said. 

Supervisor Katrina Foley also said the county needs to reimplement its hate incident tracking in a Thursday statement. 

“The county needs a more credible system for tracking hate incidents, built with a standardized definition of what classifies as a hate incident,” Foley wrote. “While the county maintains a hate crime tracking system, many hate incidents remain underreported due to inconsistent reporting structures.” 

County Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen declined to comment on the report, while Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento did not return requests for comment.

Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 28, 2025 in Santa Ana. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC

The 2024 report exclusively focused on hate crimes, and noted that despite police reporting of 119 hate crime events in Orange County in 2024, county prosecutors only filed charges in ten cases according to the report. 

The report defined hate crime events as “an occurrence where a hate crime is involved and the information about the event is in a crime report or source document that meets the criteria for a hate crime and has been reported to the DOJ.” 

The District Attorney’s office only reviewed 33 cases for possible filing, 12 of which were rejected entirely while another four were rejected but saw the defendant charged with other criminal charges according to the report. 

“As the elected District Attorney of Orange County, I don’t care who you love, but I care who you hate,” wrote District Attorney Todd Spitzer in the report. “I have – and will continue to – prosecute hate crimes to the fullest extent and send an unequivocal message to haters that hate will not be tolerated here – or anywhere.” 

Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for Spitzer, said the reason for the gap in hate crime events and charged hate crimes is that not every one of those events meets the criteria to get charged. 

“Not every hate-related event meets the legal definition of a hate crime and unfortunately not every hate-related event is reported to law enforcement so that it can be investigated and those that meet the elements of a crime, prosecuted,” Edds wrote in a Wednesday statement. 

Spitzer’s office received a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, which they are using to create hate incidents and hate crime reporting and data tracking portal online.

According to a District Attorney’s office memo to the Human Relations Commission last November, the portal is expected to go live in early 2026.

Meanwhile, the state attorney general’s 2024 hate crime report released last summer showed a 2.7% increase of reported hate crime events across California jumping to 2,023 events from 1,970 events the previous year.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a June news release about the report the data can help law enforcement and elected leaders stop hate crimes.

“Transparent and accessible data is a critical part of understanding where we are and how we can end hate crimes in our communities,” Bonta said. “I urge leaders up and down the state to review the data and resources available and recommit to standing united against hate. 

According to the same state report, there were 107 hate crime events in Orange County in 2024 with 12 reported events taking place in Huntington Beach and 18 in Irvine – the most out of any cities in OC.

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.

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