The Anne Arundel County Office of Equity and Human Rights launched a campaign called ‘Uncover Hate” focused on identifying, reporting and responding to hate crimes.

The initiative is funded by a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, awarded in 2023.

As part of the push, materials in English, Spanish and Korean on how to report hate crimes and organize community forums and trainings will be developed and distributed.

The grant will go toward 10 infrared surveillance cameras to help the Anne Arundel and Annapolis police departments investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

The cameras can be moved between sites as needed.

For example, an antisemitic threat may prompt the police department to position cameras outside synagogues.

In 2022, Anne Arundel police received 22 reports of hate crimes, 23 in 2023, and 10 in 2024. As of April this year, 13 hate crimes have been reported.

There is separate data for hate bias incidents, which often include verbal abuse. There were 52 incidents in 2023, 20 in 2024, and 15 reported as of April 2025.

The majority of hate bias incidents in the county are based on race and ethnicity. Since 2019, when data was first made available, there have been almost ten times more Black victims than any other racial group.

“If we begin taking effective enforcement action against these, that could serve as a deterrent and help prevent those kinds of crimes from happening,” said Marc Limansky, a spokesperson for the Anne Arundel Police Department.

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