Policing and the Politics of Hate Crime Response

In the mid-1990s, the Toronto Police Service developed procedures to respond to hate crimes. Since then, these practices have focused not only on traditional policing concerns around officer roles and responsibilities, evidence collection, and documentation, but also on emerging priorities related to victim care, community consultation, and respect for racial and cultural diversity.

Drawing on interviews with front-line officers, hate crime investigators, diversity officers, police trainers, and senoir police personnel in Toronto, Policing and the Politics of Hate Crime Response shows how anxieties about bad press, the integrity of the investigative process, and potential accusations of institutional racism shape the way police respond to suspected hate crimes.

While hate crime has received greater attention from police services in Canada in recent decades, this groundbreaking study reveals how institutional priorities and the very parameters that define policing prevent hate crime response from being truly transformational for victims and vulnerable communities.