WE the People, United WE Stand Against Hate – a Community Based Approach to Preventing, Educating, and Addressing Hate and Hate Based Crimes

The Dutchess County District Attorney's Office's "WE the People, United WE Stand Against Hate - a Community Based Approach to Preventing, Educating, and Addressing Hate and Hate Based Crimes" is a collaborative initiative to address, mitigate, and prevent hate crime and increase victim reporting. This project focuses on the education on and prevention of hate crime through community outreach and partnerships, crime analytics and data collection, and targeted resource distribution to improve hate crime reporting. The District Attorney's Office will create two new positions- the Hate Crime Outreach Coordinator and the Hate Crimes Analyst - to aid in the education, prevention, and investigation of bias-related crimes, including those committed online.

Dutchess County, located in the Hudson Valley region and New York metropolitan area, is a culturally rich and diverse community of nearly 300,000 residents across 825 square miles. Over the last few years, hate crime prosecution has increased in the community, but victim reporting has remained low. Further, prosecuting such crimes is a difficult feat without overwhelming evidence that a crime is bias-related. With grant funding for outreach, education, and data collection, the District Attorney's Office can enhance collaborations with educational institutions and local law enforcement agencies, identify target areas for both outreach and enforcement, and provide necessary resources to not only increase reporting, but also decrease the likelihood of hate crimes occurring in the first place.

The District Attorney's Office has established a robust partner network which includes the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, municipal law enforcement agencies representing the largest jurisdictions in the County (City and Town of Poughkeepsie, Town of Hyde Park, City of Beacon, and Town of East Fishkill), higher education institutions with a collective student body of over 16,000 (Dutchess County Community College, Vassar College, and Marist College), and 18 K-12 schools that participate in the Sheriff Office's School Resource Officer (SRO) Program.