Hate Crimes Numbers Meaningless

"Hate crimes rose 8 percent in 2006" scream the headlines in the Startle-Gram. Okay, but knowing how little math is required to get a degree in journalism, I decided to dig a little deeper. Here's the next to the last paragraph of the article (emphasis mine):

Lack of full participation by the more than 17,000 police agencies around the nation somewhat undermines year-to-year comparisons.

Somewhat? No. Unless you have full participation by the same agencies, year to year comparisons are meaningless.

Here are the numbers for the last three years as reported in the S-T:

Year: 2004
# of Agencies Reporting: 12,711
# of "Hate Crimes": 7,649

Year: 2005
# of Agencies Reporting: 12,417
# of "Hate Crimes": 7,163

Year: 2006
# of Agencies Reporting: 12,620
# of "Hate Crimes": 7,722

So what conclusions can we draw from this? None. The article notes that there are more than 17,000 police agencies in the U.S. of A. So in any given year, only about 3/4 of the police agencies bother to file a report. Is it the same 3/4 every year? Who knows.

Roughly 5,000 agencies did not file a report in 2005. Were there no "Hate Crimes" in their jurisdiction? If so, that's good news. If there were, it shows how ridiculous the whole thing is.

However, it does make for a good headline. Somehow, I think that was the main point in it all.