Reporting a crime to the police.

File a police report whenever an antisemitic incident may also be a crime. That includes:

• Antisemitic graffiti or vandalism — including a mezuzah torn down or a Jewish building defaced
• Criminal harassment, in person or online
• Assault or battery
• Threatening text messages, emails, or social-media posts

When in doubt, report it. Even if you’re unsure whether something rises to a crime, letting the police make that call puts it on the record.

An antisemitic crime is still a crime, and reporting it to the police is how the person responsible is held to account. That alone is reason to file.

Police agencies are required to collect and report annual statistics on the crimes in their jurisdiction, including antisemitic hate crimes. In recent years, the FBI’s data has consistently shown that a large share of religiously motivated hate crimes in the U.S. target Jews — who are only about two percent of the population. Those numbers exist only because people report what happened to them.

Your report becomes evidence — for your community, for lawmakers, and for your representatives in Congress working to confront antisemitism. It also strengthens a Title VI complaint and presses your school to respond in kind: it documents the incident and its date, and shows that you took it seriously enough to involve law enforcement.

If you’re hurt or concerned for your safety, call 911 and file a report with the officer who responds. Otherwise, go in person to your local police station or, for something that happened on campus, your campus police department.

Tell the officer you would like to file a criminal complaint. After you give your account, write down:

• The case or report number
• The name, phone number, and email of the officer(s) you spoke with
• For campus incidents, the incident number in addition to the report number

A police report is a legal document. Filled out properly, it may later be admitted into evidence if the case is prosecuted.

The officer will ask you questions. State the facts in chronological order: what happened, where, when, and what you witnessed. Share any evidence that could help the investigation — unedited videos, text messages, emails, screenshots of social-media posts, and event flyers.

Protect your privacy. Anything you give may become part of the public record. Consider using your school email address, or creating a new email just for filing, rather than sharing your personal address.

Say it’s an antisemitic hate crime. Ask that the crime be investigated as an antisemitic hate crime, and explain why you believe it was motivated by antisemitism. Don’t assume the officer knows how to identify antisemitism — your NJAC lawyer can help you frame this.

As soon as you can, email everything to your point of contact at the police department — so be sure to get an email address before you leave. In the subject line, write “Report #[your number].”

Send them:

• A written statement setting out your testimony
• All of your evidence
• A list of suspected perpetrators, if you have one
• A list of witnesses
• Your Student ID, for incidents on campus

Police often ask witnesses for their own statements to include in the report. If you’re a witness, include all the relevant facts.

On campus, there are two different numbers, and you want both:

• An incident number is generated automatically by dispatch for every incident on campus — from a nighttime escort request to a criminal report.
• A report number is assigned specifically for a crime, and reports are tracked statewide for statistical purposes.

Beyond the police, consider reporting the incident to the FBI and to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) so it’s counted in national antisemitism data. The more incidents are documented, the clearer the pattern becomes.