The Threats and Harassment Dataset (THD), BDI’s event-level dataset capturing hostility towards local public officials around the country, is now updated through June 2024. This release adds more than 70 new threat and harassment events to the dataset, including nearly 30 for the month of June, bringing the total number recorded since the start of data collection to almost 1,100.
Latest Trends
- So far this year, over 240 threat and harassment events have been reported across more than 40 states. This marks a 15% increase in events compared to the first half of last year and a 60% increase compared to the first half of 2022.*
- Death threats remain the most frequent type of event recorded since the start of data collection in 2022, at approximately 60% of all threats and 37% of total events. During the first half of 2024, death threats accounted for 42% of total events.
- This year, approximately 58% of threat and harassment events have been delivered by a perpetrator who was not physically present at the time of targeting, with 33% involving a perpetrator who was present.
- Multiple high-profile incidents of in-person targeting at public meetings have been reported this year, including a death threat linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict in California as well as intimidation over hyperlocal issues in Pennsylvania.
- In cases where the type of targeting has been identified (see graph below), racist threats and harassment have been reported at higher rates than other forms of hostility (e.g. sexist, anti-LGBTQ+, etc.) so far this year.
The THD will continue to be updated monthly to provide users with near-real-time data on the evolving threat and harassment landscape going into the election and beyond, in order to better support evidence-based decision-making to protect civic spaces.
The THD is part of BDI’s Understanding Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials (UTH) project, a mixed methods approach to systematically monitor the full scope of threats and harassment facing local officials across the United States, and is made possible by the UTH consortium. Current members of the consortium include the Anti-Defamation League, the Brennan Center for Justice, CivicPulse, the Prosecution Project, the National League of Cities, and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, among others. BDI regularly works to expand data contributions to address gaps in coverage. If you believe your organization has relevant data to contribute, please reach out to [email protected].
The project is supported by the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and generous flexible support from BDI’s core funders, following essential start-up funds from the Anti-Defamation League and Stand Together Trust.
*Please note that the THD is a ‘living dataset,’ meaning that each month events are updated to account for new or better information, including for past time periods. As a result, trends are subject to change from update to update. Review the THD codebook for more detail about methodology and the process for tracking changes to the data.