Washington, DC: As the FBI has officially recognizes Anti-Sikh hate crimes, the Sikh Coalition today announced to continue to prioritize improvements to law enforcement training. In the past, when crimes were committed against Sikhs because of their identity, local law enforcement officials sometimes failed to investigate or charge these incidents as hate crimes due to ignorance about Sikh religious practices.
The federal government’s recognition of Anti-Sikh hate crimes means that police departments nationwide will have an opportunity to learn about the Sikh community. With the benefit of Sikh awareness training, we are hopeful that law enforcement officials will do a better job investigating and prosecuting bias incidents against Sikhs when they occur. The Sikh Coalition will continue to work with the FBI to improve these training materials moving forward.
An update by the Sikh Coalition says: “We are also hopeful that this catalyzes more time and money to hate crime prevention, with an emphasis on bias prevention programs in our nation’s schools, local communities, and armed services now that data on Sikhs is being collected. It is critical to track hate crimes, but our top organizational priority is always working to improve prevention methods”.