The Threats and Harassment Dataset (THD), BDI’s event-level dataset on hostility towards local public officials around the country, is now updated through October 2024. The latest update adds almost 90 new threat and harassment events to the dataset, including more than 60 for October, bringing the total number of events captured since the start of data collection in 2022 to over 1,300.* Overall, last month saw an increase in threat and harassment incidents driven by a spike in events targeting election officials and judicial officials in the weeks leading up to the vote, following a decline in total events in August and September.
Data and analysis for the full election period will be released in December.
Latest Trends
- As of October, nearly 500 threat and harassment events have been reported across more than 40 states and the District of Columbia this year.
- This marks an 8% increase compared to the first 10 months of 2023, and a 93% increase compared to the same time period in 2022.
- At the current pace, 2024 remains on track to surpass 2023 in total number of threat and harassment events.
- Threats and harassment targeting election officials, poll workers, and judges involved in election-related cases accounted for the majority of incidents in October, at 80%, and drove the overall increase in events last month.
- Incidents were concentrated in places like Maricopa County in Arizona and Fulton County in Georgia, which have been the focus of election-related conspiracy theories since 2020.
- Incidents were concentrated in places like Maricopa County in Arizona and Fulton County in Georgia, which have been the focus of election-related conspiracy theories since 2020.
- Most threat and harassment events reported in October were related to national dynamics like the election, surpassing incidents motivated by hyperlocal issues for the first time in months.
- Almost 90% of events recorded last month were linked to election-related motivations, including incidents targeting election officials over fraud allegations as well as judges who ruled on contentious ballot cases.
- Approximately 3% of events were linked to hyperlocal motivations, a decrease from 60% in September.
The THD is updated monthly to provide users with near-real-time data on the evolving threat and harassment landscape 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]. For more information about the UTH project and how to cite the research, check our FAQ sheet.
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.