The Chicago Reporter, an investigative monthly, built its own database of hate crimes from police records obtained from the Chicago Police Department. The paper chose 12 fields including type of crime, location, victim's age and race, offender's age and race. The analysis found that hate crimes against whites had dropped, while those against blacks had risen, and there was a slight decrease in hate crimes overall.
Some information was missing, but even that turned into a story. The paper discovered the state of Illinois was violating state law by not collecting data on hate crimes.