Edmonton police recorded a notable shift in reported hate crime last year: despite fewer total reports than the past few years, significantly more of them involved violence.

During Thursday’s Edmonton Police Commission meeting, members of the Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS) hate crimes team said these types of abuses tend to be property-related offences like graffitti, vandalism, theft or damage.

But police data shows 2025 bucked that trend, with violence making up nearly three quarters of reported hate crimes. That’s a stark increase from each of the previous three years, when police received more reports of hate crimes overall, but the proportion of violence ranged between 23 and 37 per cent.

“Several contextual factors within Alberta’s evolving sociopolitical environment may be contributing,” the EPS report presented to the commission said.

The report noted, lately, there have been protests across a range of political topics, such as international conflicts and local policies.

“These events tend to increase the frequency of interactions between individuals and groups who may hold divergent views,” the report said.

The 2SLGBTQIA+ community was most targeted last year, police data shows.

Sgt. Amanda Ross can’t identify a specific cause driving that, she told reporters after the commission meeting. But she pointed to recent political events in Alberta, that impact some members of that community, as a potential reason for more reports.

Police data also shows a rise in hate crimes against Black, South Asian and Arabian people. Ross said part of that can be credited to geopolitics.

“As well, we’ve seen a rise in online rhetoric over the last few years toward newcomers to Canada, toward the immigrant community,” she said.

EPS is also tracking hate incidents, which it defines as non-criminal hateful events. Ross said these often look like xenophobic comments, such as telling someone to go back to their country.

Hate incidents rose almost 80 per cent from 2024 to 2025, police data shows. EPS believes this could be due to its work to increase public awareness of those events, so people can better identify them when they happen. 

Such incidents are important to track, because they can be precursors to hate crimes, Ross said.

Police to investigate underreporting

During Thursday’s meeting, Ross said hate crimes are one of the most unreported crimes because victims may fear retribution, the normalization of hate and a lack of trust in the criminal justice system.

Part of last year’s rise in reported violence could signal that the public feels more confident coming forward, she said.

But Edmonton Police Commission chair Ben Henderson said he suspects certain groups are still underreporting hate to police, noting Indigenous people as an example.

The commission ultimately passed a motion Thursday, directing police to examine underreporting and come back with findings on what police can do to remove barriers. 

“We need to make sure that they have that trust in the system, so that they can come forward, so we can understand what’s happening out there,” Henderson said.