US Group Launches Mobile App To Report Hate Crimes

As incidents of hate targeting Muslims and other minority groups in the U.S. rise, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a mobile app allowing victims make instant reports. 

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"In a moment of trauma, you're not thinking that I need to go online and enter something, but your phone will always be in your hand," said Corey Saylor, who runs the group's anti-Islamophobia efforts.

The Making Democracy Work for Everyone application allows a user to file a description of an alleged incident, which CAIR staff will then investigate.

If the group rules the incident was the result religious bias, it will include it in its reporting.

If it believes the incident was criminal, it will share the details with local police.

The app also offers advice on an individual’s constitutional rights and contains a donation function, a feed of news articles and contact information for CAIR. 

“We urge all American Muslims and their supporters to download CAIR’s app and to take advantage of its much-needed features, particularly the function allowing reporting of bias incidents,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

The Washington-based advocay group reported a 44 percent surge in the number of hate crimes reported by U.S. Muslims last year, fueled by the anti-Islam rhetoric during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

There was also a 57 percent increase in incidents of Islamophobia during the same period.

The latest national-level hate crime data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation only covers incidents up to 2015. 

The FBI database relies on reports from federal and local law enforcement agencies. But a recent report by ProPublica found that more than 120 federal agencies had failed to submit their statistics. 

Lawmakers in Washington have been working in recent years to improve the reporting of hate crimes. 

“I’ve long urged the FBI and the Department of Justice to improve the tracking and reporting of hate crimes by state and local law enforcement agencies,” Senator Al Franken told ProPublica.

“But in order to make sure we understand the full scope of the problem, the federal government must also do its part to ensure that we have accurate and trustworthy data.”