Los Angeles County experienced more hate crimes in 2018 than any year since 2009; however, Santa Clarita hate crimes fell by more than half in comparison to 2017, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the LA County Commission on Human Relations.

“We are disturbed that reported hate crimes in L.A. County have been rising for five years in a row,” said Robin Toma, executive director of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, in a statement.

A total of three hate crimes were recorded in Santa Clarita in 2018, each of which was identified as motivated by “Race/Ethnicity/National Origin,” according to the report.

This represents a 57 percent decrease compared to 2017, when seven hate crimes occurred in Santa Clarita.

The number of hate crimes in Santa Clarita has been on the decline since 2016, which witnessed 13 such crimes in Santa Clarita. 

However, the trend of a decline in hate crimes has gone on more broadly since 2011, when Santa Clarita experienced 21 hate crimes, the peak for the city among the available data since 2010.

Conversely, Los Angeles County as a  whole experienced a 2.6 percent increase in the number of hate crimes and has seen an upward trend over the last five years, according to the report.

The 521 hate crimes reported in 2018 represent the largest reported number for LA County since 2009.

The report is available in its entirety here.

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