(The Center Square) — The New York City Police Department is quietly walking back a controversial policy change requiring the city to only report confirmed hate crimes, following a backlash over the new methodology.
The department’s Hate Crimes Task Force’s latest monthly report said hate crimes increased by nearly 12% in the first quarter of 2026, a surge the agency was driven largely by anti-Jewish attacks. The spike in hate crimes comes as murders and other violent crimes in the Big Apple dropped during the same period, according to the report.
But the report also revealed that the NYPD will now list both “reported” and “confirmed” hate crimes in its monthly tally. That’s a reversal from a policy change less than a month ago when the NYPD announced it would only include “confirmed” hate crimes in its monthly report, not cases that are under investigation.
In the latest report, the agency said disclosure of both sets of numbers in the monthly reports “will enhance transparency and reflects best practice in connection with hate crime reporting.”
“The NYPD previously provided data on the total number of confirmed hate crimes combined with only those reported hate crimes that had not yet been reviewed or classified by the HCTF,” the agency said. “This new reporting paradigm represents a significant advancement in transparency.”
The initial changes to the NYPD’s new reporting methodology came after the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force reported 58 bias crimes citywide in February, marking a 152% increase over the previous month. There were 31 hate crimes targeting Jewish people that month, a 182% increase, according to the report.
The Mamdani administration said the mayor’s office was not involved in NYPD’s decision to change how the hate crimes data is reported.
But the move raised concerns among other Democratic city leaders, including Council Speaker Julie Menin, who questioned NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch about the changes during a recent budget hearing.
Menin said the council was “very concerned” about the rise and hate crimes in New York City, specifically those targeting Jews and Muslims, and said she worried the changes could mean less transparency in reported incidents.
Tisch defended the policy change during the budget hearing, claiming at the time that the process would be “more transparent” and provide a more accurate account of the number of hate crimes in the city. She said hate crimes data reported under the previous system was flawed and “not “a reflection of reality.”
“I believe in transparency, but I also believe that the numbers the NYPD was previously reporting were conflicting, wrong and confusing,” Tisch told the council. “What we should be reporting, in my opinion, is confirmed incidents of hate crimes.”
Wrangling over the hate crimes data comes as Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, tries to overcome criticism on the campaign trail stemming from his previous remarks about support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and past rhetoric about Israeli government.
