Chapter 181
2012 -- H 7111
Enacted 06/08/12
A N A C T
RELATING TO
STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - STATE POLICE
Introduced By: Representatives Ajello, Handy, Blazejewski, Cimini, and Walsh
Date Introduced: January 12, 2012
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 42-28-46 of the General Laws in Chapter
42-28 entitled "State
Police" is hereby
amended to read as follows:
42-28-46.
Development of system monitoring crimes motivated by bigotry and bias.
-
- (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall
have the following meanings:
(1) "Police
department" -- means all state, municipal and campus police departments
within the state of
(2) "Hate
crime" -- means any crime motivated by bigotry and bias, including, but
not
limited to threatened, attempted, or completed acts that
appear after investigation to have been
motivated by racial, religious, ethnic, sexual orientation,
gender, gender identity or expression or
disability prejudice or motivated by prejudice against a person
who is homeless or is perceived to
be homeless. For the purposes of this chapter, the
definitions of disability, sexual orientation and
gender identity or expression shall be defined as set forth
in
11-24-2.1;
(3) "Hate crime
data" -- means information, incident reports, records and statistics
relating to hate crimes, collected by the state police unit
pursuant to this section;
(4) "Incident
report" -- means account of any individual occurrence of hate crime
received or collected by the crime reporting unit pursuant to
this section.
(b) The state police
shall, by January 1, 1994, develop a system monitoring the
occurrence of crimes committed in the state which the evidence
of the offense demonstrates was
motivated by racial, religious, ethnic bigotry, or bias on any
other matter defined as a "hate
crime" herein. All police departments within the state
shall report monthly the occurrence of such
crimes to the state police. The state police shall maintain
a permanent record of these offenses
categorized by community of occurrence, type of offense, target
of offense, and such other
information as the department deems relevant. The department
shall develop a plan for the
collection, analysis, and dissemination of the data regarding
such crimes and shall promulgate
regulations relating to the collection of hate crime data, as
defined in this section, which are
submitted by law enforcement agencies, individuals, state and
local human rights commissions,
and anti-discrimination advocacy organizations.
(c) The state police shall
compile and distribute to each police department a listing of all
criminal offenses and penalties for those actions defined as
"hate crimes" herein. Notice of the
provision of these sections shall be primarily posted at each
police station.
(d) This section shall
not be construed to increase or enhance the penalties against the
perpetrators of hate crimes as defined in this section, unless
provided for by any other section of
law.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC00151
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