Hate Crimes | Westminster, CA

The Westminster Police Department believes in protecting the City's diverse population from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by a violent group or individual based upon race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

For historical information on hate crimes in Orange County, please refer to the OC Human Relations website.

Hate Crime vs. Hate Incident

Category	Hate Crime	Hate Incident
Action	Criminal Act (Penal Code 422.55)	Act of prejudice (not a crime, does not involve violence, threats or property damage)
Motivation	Bias: based on perceived race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or gender	Hatred or bigotry directed at any individual, residence, house of worship, institution, or business because of perceived race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability.
Examples	Acts that result in injury, verbal threat of violence that can be carried out, property damage	Hate speech (name calling, racial slurs, insults), display of offensive materials on one's property, distribution of hate materials in public places, and posting of hate materials not resulting in property damage.

Reported Hate Incidents and Crimes

This page will be updated monthly

Hate incidents reported to the Westminster Police Department as of November 8, 2024: 0

Hate crimes reported to the Westminster Police Department as of November 8, 2024: 3

1/2/2024: Threat to victim based on religion (Anti-Jewish)
5/10/2024: Brandishing of weapon based on race (Anti-Black)
11/8/2024: Sexual battery based on race (Anti-Hispanic)

If You Are A Victim

If you are a victim of a hate crime, please report it to the Westminster Police Department by calling our non-emergency dispatch line at (714) 548-3212 or 9-1-1 for emergencies.

If the event does not meet the definition of a hate crime, it may fall under the category of a hate incident.