The Seattle auditor has finished a comprehensive audit of how the city, including the Police Department, handles bias crimes.

The audit shows the city adequately addressing bias crimes but notes that there is room for improvement in incident tracking, community outreach, service coordination and staff training.

Bias crimes are criminal acts including assault, threat of bodily harm or property damage committed against a person because of his or her real or perceived characteristics (race, religion, sexual orientation, etc,). Council members Sally Clark, Tom Rasmussen and Nick Licata requested the audit in response to a spate of violent incidents perpetrated against numerous people of sexual and ethnic minority groups in 2007.

"Seattle is only recording and reporting the bare minimum information," said Rasmussen. "We should begin tracking hate incidents and issuing an annual comprehensive report beyond the federal requirements. To be a leader in preventing and acting against bias crimes Seattle must produce better information on what we are experiencing in the community."

"Thankfully, serious bias crimes are relatively rare in Seattle, but we do see an unfortunate number of lesser bias incidents annually," said Clark. "This audit highlights that police officers and others do a great job, but we can do more to educate communities about their rights and also we can respond with better tracking of incidents and training."

The Bias/Hate Crime and Incident Audit can be reviewed at the Office of the City Auditor's Web site at http://www.seattle.gov/audit/2008.htm