Announcer: Welcome to the Talking Beat, the podcast for the Portland Police Bureau. We are focusing on thoughtful conversations that we hope will inform and provide you with a small glimpse of work performed by Portland Police Bureau members and our partners, as well as issues affecting public safety in our city. On today's episode, our host, Terri Wallo-Strauss is joined by Sergeant Matt Jacoobsen of our Major Crimes unit to talk about bias crimes, something that doesn't just harm individuals but erodes a sense of safety in our community. Sgt. Jacoobsen: When we look at the impact these cases have on our victims, somebody's being targeted for who they are and there's an emotional toll. There's a trauma that is associated with that. There are the structural and the law enforcement and the investigative tasks that have to happen around these cases, but there's also the human and emotional work that we have to do to support the victims through the process. Announcer: In this podcast, we'll explore what constitutes a bias, crime or bias incident. We'll also discuss how the Police Bureau works with our partners to investigate and respond and things you need to know. If you're a victim or a witness. Here's our show. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Well, thanks for joining us today, Matt. Let's start with who you are and how long you've worked at the Police Bureau and kind of what your role is here. Sgt. Jacoobsen: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I'm currently a Sergeant with our Major Crimes unit within the Detective Division. My unit handles armed robberies, aggravated assaults and bias crimes. We're obviously here today to talk about bias crimes. I was born and raised in Portland, so I grew up in this city and obviously now working here. I've been lucky to have a lot of fun assignments. Most of my career at the Bureau was working with the Central Precinct Neighborhood Response Team. There we focused on chronic community safety and livability issues, which was just a phenomenal experience, a great team with a wonderful group of officers. I'm also a crisis negotiator on our crisis negotiation team part-time, and then we had a chance to do quite a few other things before coming up as a Sergeant in the Detective Division in the fall of 2023. Terri Wallo-Strauss: So we're here today to talk about bias crimes and bias incidents. Let's start with just kind of the definition. What is a bias crime? Sgt. Jacoobsen: So with the Portland Police Bureau, we look at all different types of bias, events, bias crimes, non-criminal bias incidents, and then bias events that we deem to be unfounded or likely did not occur. A bias crime is something that is a criminal offense that is motivated in part or whole by bias against another person's actual or perceived protected class. In Oregon, we work with seven different protected classes, race, color, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation and gender identity, and we work with two different levels of crimes, a misdemeanor and a felony, both called bias crime, Bias Crime 1, and Bias Crime 2. Bias Crime 1 is the felony and Bias Crime 2 is the misdemeanor. In Oregon, the bias crime laws essentially expand upon parts of other existing statutes. They work as an enhancement to a crime that would already be a crime if it existed or occurred, but was motivated by that bias. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Can you give me an example? Sgt. Jacoobsen: A good example of this is if somebody assaulted another person and caused injury, that would normally be a misdemeanor level assault four, but if that crime was motivated by some sort of bias, and we can prove that, that would be considered a felony level Bias Crime 1. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Matt, I think all of this is easily understandable, but can you give me an idea of something that would be, say, a misdemeanor crime, but the bias charges elevate it? Sgt. Jacoobsen: Some other examples of bias crimes could be like anti-Semitic graffiti on a synagogue. Again, normally a criminal mischief, but with the bias element would then become bias crime as well. Somebody threatening to seriously injure somebody while possessing a weapon or the means to do so normally would be a misdemeanor menacing charge, but with the bias nexus would be an enhanced up to a bias crime with a more severe penalty. Terri Wallo-Strauss: I've heard you talk about a bias incident. What is a bias incident? Sgt. Jacoobsen: Well, the more legal definition we work with that the Oregon Department of Justice uses is a non-criminal hostile expression motivated in whole or part by another person's actual or perceived bias of those protected classes I mentioned. In practice, what that means is if somebody expresses some sort of bias or hate towards another person, whether it be verbalized or in some other way, we consider that a bias incident. It's not a crime to say those type of things or call somebody a slur, but it's something in which we want to document. Terri Wallo-Strauss: As a city, how many bias crimes are reported each year in the city of Portland? Sgt. Jacoobsen: So we've seen an increase over the last several years, but there's a little bit of context to that as to why. In 2019, the Oregon state legislature passed a law that kind of reevaluated and reclassified bias crimes and how they're handled in the state. That law went into effect in 2020 and changed what we previously used, which was a crime called intimidation into what we now use as Bias Crime 1 and Bias Crime 2. Part of that also required some additional reporting of stats, additional tracking of stats, but it also codified that bias incident term that we had talked about a little bit ago. There's some requirements around the bias incidents and reporting those to the Oregon Department of Justice Bias Response Hotline, which I know we'll talk about in a little bit, but you asked about numbers. We've seen a pretty consistent increase year over year over the last four years. In 2023, for instance, we saw 320 total reported bias events, and we saw 557 total reported bias events in 2024. For a wider view, back in 2021, our first full year of tracking this, we saw 56 bias crimes reported and 43 non-criminal bias incidents reported. So you can see the pretty expanding numbers we've seen, but I think there's a pretty good explanation and a reason for that. Terri Wallo-Strauss: What's driving the increase? Sgt. Jacoobsen: Well, I think there's a couple of factors at play. First, in 2023, we began the process of rewriting the Portland Police Bureau Directive around how we responded to these events. That eventually was put into policy in 2024, early 2024, and a huge motivation for that rewrite and that work around that directive was, as I mentioned, the clear evidence in front of us that we are seeing more of these and we wanted to make sure that we were doing everything we could to take these not just as seriously as possible, but as consistent as possible. Part of that directive that I mentioned was implemented in early 2024 really cleared a step-by-step process of how we expected our officers to report these. The police bureau has always been one of two agencies within the state that has a directive requirement for us to write reports on those non-criminal bias incidents. We continued that with that new directive, but we also worked hard to make sure the steps and notifications surrounding taking those reports were more clear and specific around how those reports should be handled. As part of the implementation of that directive, we worked with our training division and released a Bureau-wide training, not only around that directive, but around some education around how we should respond to these types of events. That training, I think served as a bit of a catalyst. I noticed we are doing a far better job of recognizing bias events in our day-to-day police work, categorizing those, and so then capturing more than we had before. The second part of this is the fact that we've worked really, really hard at outreach with our community around education. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Matt, I know we work alongside some partners. Can you discuss that with me a little bit and tell us how that works? Sgt. Jacoobsen: We are really lucky to have a strong relationship with the Oregon Department of Justice Bias Response Hotline and the Multnomah County DA's office. We work as a team around a lot of these efforts. The DA's office has a grant that funds a partial-time prosecutor and a partial-time investigator dedicated to Bias Crimes, and it allows us to have a point-to-point contact between the Police Bureau and the DA's office. What this means in practice of working the cases is obviously wonderful that we have direct go-tos for those cases, but when it comes to the education and outreach, instead of just being my team or me, we have a large group of people that can speak to this work and really help with that education while all giving the same message within our community. Terri Wallo-Strauss: You know Matt, I know you're a very dedicated Sergeant and the work you do investigating these cases is tremendous, but tell us about the complexities of how you go about investigating some of these. Sgt. Jacoobsen: Absolutely. Bias crimes are unique. They're really the only crimes in the state of Oregon, which we have to prove motive from the crime. Again, some more legalese, and I apologize for the legal jargon, but we usually work around the perpetrator's culpable mental state. Whether they did something intentionally or recklessly or negligently, but with bias crimes, we have to prove what that motivation was. So this hurdle oftentimes leads to a little bit of additional work we have to do, but there are some case law within the state of Oregon that allows us to introduce subject's prior actions as part of proving that motivation, which is obviously helpful, but again, you talk about the complexities. We then need to look into those prior actions and document them and vet them and make sure that they do fit within the things we need to push that case forward. So those are just some legal and structural challenges we face, but that's not taking into account that we're also working to ensure that we're working from a victim-centered and trauma-informed position. Oftentimes, specifically around these type of cases, we need to make sure we give extra time to victims to process what they've been exposed to or we need to support and work through that process with them. We often talk about meeting a victim where they are, and sometimes that can mean time. Sometimes that can mean regular communication, sometimes it can mean no communication at all, but the work around ensuring we support that victim through the case is really where I guess the additional work or the additional time goes into. Terri Wallo-Strauss: I want to give victims an idea of how they're supported in this process. Can you tell me about that? Sgt. Jacoobsen: When we look at the impact these cases have on our victims, somebody's being targeted for who they are and there's an emotional toll. There's a trauma that is associated with that. That close relationship with the prosecutor and the investigator really allow us to have a warm handoff when that case is eventually referred over for prosecution. It allows us to be in communication well before they actually take the case, but we're able to introduce that victim, ensure they're being assigned a victim advocate as appropriate, ensure that they're getting the support that they need, and so I guess to summarize, yes, there are the structural and the law enforcement and the investigative tasks that have to happen around these cases, but there's also the human and emotional work that we have to do to support the victims through the process. Terri Wallo-Strauss: You're doing so well in setting me up for my next question because we were going to talk a little bit about community engagement and in a different conversation I'm going to have with our community engagement officer who works with a lot of these vulnerable communities, but tell me what the importance of community engagement is in your role. Sgt. Jacoobsen: Traditionally, the role of detectives is to arrive after the bad thing has happened. When you look at our community engagement, especially around bias crimes, especially around vulnerable communities, about marginalized communities, it's an opportunity to engage with those folks to build a relationship and to make sure they're comfortable with the Detective Division or all of the Police Bureau before the bad thing happened. There's so much, only so much that can happen after somebody's been exposed to a traumatic event. If we're able to get out in the community and build those relationships before the bad thing happens, it just makes it, I think, far more likely for that person to feel comfortable coming to us. We discussed earlier the increase in reporting we've seen. I mentioned that I think part of that's around our outreach, and again, you look at the numbers or the percentage increase, it appears concerning that there's this rise of hate and bias in our community. I actually see those numbers and see that increase is actually a huge success of our community engagement in our outreach and education efforts. Those, I think, for a large part are events that probably wouldn't have been reported if we hadn't provided that education and outreach, and then we wouldn't have known about them. And we'd much rather know about them even if it ends up being just a non-criminal bias incident. You had mentioned the community engagement division, and I kind of fell backwards into a fortunate situation where the Police Bureau has pre-existing relationships with seven different culturally specific advisory councils like the Muslim or Asian Pacific Islander, American Advisory Councils. That was kind of my starting point when I took this role on, that's a group of folks that choose to engage with the Police Bureau. Through the contacts I've made with those advisory councils, through contacts I've made through other groups like the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crimes, I was able to go out and build relationships, really hoping that we could foster some trust within the community, but also some credibility. I think it's important for victims or really any community member to know that if they're victimized or even exposed, let's say to that non-criminal bias incident that the Police Bureau is going to take that seriously. There are many different outcomes to a criminal case, and so whether it be holding that perpetrator accountable, facilitating support or services for that victim, or even just understanding that they may not want further investigation, they may want something documented. Having the ability and the trust that the Police Bureau is going to do that is something that we strive for when we're engaging with our partners. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Matt, how do you evaluate who we should be reaching out to? Sgt. Jacoobsen: We're always looking for outreach opportunities, and we're constantly re-evaluating who we should be engaging with. Part of what we do, as I said, there's some tracking that happens, some stats that are kept. There's actually an open dashboard on the Police Bureau's website that tracks our bias crime stats through the open data portal. I have access to a little bit more in-depth version of that, but I'm able to see really where and who is being targeted in our community. It allows me to see if, for instance, a specific community all of a sudden is being targeted over another one, and if I have contacts or need to find a way to reach out to that community that's now being targeted, we can do so. That agility, I think is really important is that this isn't a stagnant issue and I want to make sure that we are being responsive to that. Terri Wallo-Strauss: So let's start at the time where a crime or incident happens. What does a victim do? Sgt. Jacoobsen: Well, my hope is that the victims report it whether to us or to be someone else. I think it's really important that we get that information. You know if we don't have that, we can't work to hold somebody accountable for what they've done. Terri Wallo-Strauss: Let's talk about some resources and is there an option for someone who possibly doesn't want to talk to law enforcement? Sgt. Jacoobsen: In Oregon? We're unique in the country in that we have the Oregon Department of Justice Bias Response Hotline, which is part of the Oregon Department of Justice Civil Rights Division as an option for people. The hotline is a non-law enforcement entity, and most of the folks that work there come from a victim's advocacy background, and in fact, anybody can call the hotline, not just victims. If somebody witnesses or a third party to a bias crime or bias event, they can reach out to them and the hotline has some phenomenal resources that the police bureau doesn't have, whether it be around making sure that a person's home is safe and secure, whether it be getting information on maybe how to work through this with counseling or whatever it may be. They also do referrals to law enforcement. I had the opportunity to work with them about two years ago to develop a standardized referral form from them to law enforcement so that it reduces the number of people and things and entities that a victim would have to call if for some reason they weren't comfortable calling law enforcement right off the start. It's a nice intermediary, but on the other side is, we're always looking to take these reports if something happens. People can do that a number of different ways be via our non-emergency line, whether it's our 911 if a crime is actively occurring or somebody is in danger or through going to a police precinct and asking to speak with a police officer. I'd also like to add, at the end of the day, we really want to make sure people in our community feel safe. Being targeted for just being who you are is a big deal, and the impacts of bias crimes or even the non-criminal bias incidents can be significant, and if an event isn't reported, as I said earlier, we don't know about it, and if we don't know about it, we can't investigate it or we can't funnel the needed resources to that person. As difficult as it may be, and as even scary as it may be to report to law enforcement, I really encourage people to do so so that we have that information. Terri Wallo-Strauss: So I want to be sure and get the numbers and the resources out there, and we'll put them in the show notes as well. But what's the hotline number, Matt? Sgt. Jacoobsen: So the Department of Justice Bias Response Hotline can be reached via phone at 1844 924 24 27. The last four digits spell 'bias' or online, you can get to their website by simply searching Oregon Department of Justice Bias Response Hotline. To get directly to the Police Bureau, there's always 911 if an event is actively occurring or somebody is in danger, or our non-emergency number at 503 823 33 33. Terri Wallo-Strauss: We want to thank you again for coming today, Matt, and again, for more information, we'll put it in the show notes, but we also have a lot of this on our website under the Bias Crime tab portland.gov/police. Announcer: Thanks for listening to The Talking Beat. Do you have a question for Talking Beat? Send us an email at talkingbeat@police.portlandoregon.gov or give us a call at 971 339 88 68. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and for more episodes, visit our website, portland.gov/police/podcast.