‘Everyone Belongs’: City of Austin Better Tracks Hate Crime Data

City of Austin Launches ‘We All Belong’ Anti-Hate Campaign (KXAN Photo/Ed Zavala)

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After a weekend in which a drag brunch in Austin was canceled due to a bomb threat and police in nearby Lakeway said they were investigating anti-Semitic graffiti, we think it’s a good time to remind you to program the city of Austin launched about a year ago that helps them promote resources and track hate-related incidents.

“The We All Belong campaign is an anti-hate initiative that we launched last summer to first and foremost help people report hate crimes and incidents more effectively and know what to do, but also to celebrate the richness of our community, to tell people that we all they belong in Austin,” said Alison Alter, a member of the Austin City Council. She introduced a resolution to launch the campaign.

Four hate crimes have been reported in Austin so far in 2024, according to city data. Last year, 52 crimes were reported – and this was in every city district. This data only became available on a public dashboard last year.

“We know that we are seeing a lot of incidents against the LGBTQ community, against the African-American community, against the Asian community, over religion. But it looks different in different parts of the community and we have a much better sense of how people are feeling,” Alter said.

That’s a large part of why the city implemented this initiative in the first place – to help the city understand where hate incidents are happening, how likely the community is to report them, and to get better data overall before taking action.

“If we want to ask the Hate Crimes Task Force, we want to ask APD Victim Services to address hate incidents, they need to have the data,” Alter said.

A website launched with the initiative can be found here where you can report a suspected hate crime to the Austin Police Department, view APD’s data on bias crimes, view community survey data on the threat of hate crimes, contact community partners and learn about upcoming We All Belong events.

“Party at the People’s House”

This year, the City of Austin is hosting the People’s House Party again in conjunction with the We All Belong campaign. There will be live music, food and drinks, works of art and a market.

The event will take place on June 22 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the town hall

More details about this annual event can be found here.