The number of hate crime incidents reported to the FBI increased about 17 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s annual Hate Crime Statistics report, released today. 
 
 Law enforcement reported 7,175 hate crimes to UCR in 2017, up from 6,121 in 2016. Although the numbers increased last year, so did the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data—with approximately 1,000 additional agencies contributing information. The report, Hate Crime Statistics, 2017, includes hate crime information for last year, broken down by location, offenders, bias types, and victims. 
 
 According to the report, the most common bias categories in single-bias incidents were race/ethnicity/ancestry (59.6) percent, religion (20.6 percent), and sexual orientation (15.8 percent). In addition to the 7,106 single-bias incidents reported last year, there were also 69 multiple-bias hate crimes reported. 
 
 About 5,000 of the hate crimes reported were categorized as crimes against persons, such as intimidation or assault. About 3,000 were considered crimes against property, such as vandalism, robbery, or burglary. (Some hate crime incidents are classified as both crimes against persons and crimes against property.) 
 
 The FBI is working with law enforcement partners across the country to encourage reporting of hate crime statistics. Next year, FBI personnel will provide training for law enforcement officers on how to identify bias-motivated incidents and report that data to the FBI’s UCR Program. Additionally, the Department of Justice launched a new hate crimes webpage, which has information for law enforcement on reporting incidents. 
 
 Reporting hate crime data to the UCR Program allows the public, researchers, community leaders, and local government to raise awareness of the issue and gain a more accurate picture of hate crimes. It also allows law enforcement agencies to develop data-focused strategies and preventative measures. 
 
 Hate crimes are the highest investigative priority in the FBI’s civil rights program. ||||| The number of hate crimes reported in California surged more than 17 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to new data released Monday by the state Department of Justice, the third straight year of double-digit increases. Local law enforcement reported 1,093 hate crimes last year. 
 
 Crimes perpetrated against people on religious grounds accounted for the largest increase, the report found. Anti-Muslim, anti-Islamic and anti-Jewish hate crimes rose by 21 percent last year, to 207, up from 171 reported in 2016. 
 
 Incidents involving a person's real or perceived sexual orientation jumped nearly 19 percent, with 246 crimes committed last year, compared with 207 the year prior. Crimes against gay males accounted for the largest number, with 172 last year. 
 
 Race-related crimes increased 16 percent year-over-year, with 602 reported last year. 
 
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 Those involving anti-Hispanic or anti-Latino bias jumped about 52 percent in 2017, with 126 incidents reported. Crimes involving anti-black or anti-African-American bias jumped more than 20 percent, to 302 crimes. 
 
 The 2017 numbers reflect a sharp increase from 2016, when law enforcement agencies reported an 11 percent spike in total hate crimes. The latest report comes roughly a month after a state audit found that California undercounts the incidents. 
 
 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released the data Monday, a collection of statistics reported by law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies across the state. Of the total hate crimes last year, 383 were referred for prosecution. ||||| (CNN) The shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh -- in which the death toll now stands at 11 -- is believed to be the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the US, the Anti-Defamation League said. 
 
 "It is simply unconscionable for Jews to be targeted during worship on a Sabbath morning, and unthinkable that it would happen in the United States of America in this day and age," the Jewish organization, which tracks anti-Semitic incidents, said in a statement 
 
 Until now, the deadliest attack specifically targeting Jews happened in 1985 when a Seattle lawyer Charles Goldmark was bludgeoned and stabbed to death, along with his wife, Annie, and their two sons, the ADL said. David Morse Rice, a drifter and unemployed steelworker, was found guilty of those killings. 
 
 Anti-Semitic incidents and online harassment rising, ADL says 
 
 The ADL said the attack Saturday comes at a time when both anti-Semitic incidents and online harassment are on the rise. 
 
 Jewish people were the victims of more reported hate crimes than any other religious minority in 2016, according to the most recent year of FBI statistics. 
 
 In that year , 684 anti-Jewish incidents were reported. That's more than the rest of religiously motivated hate crimes combined, records reveal. 
 
 Tracking such crimes can be nuanced and difficult. The motivations aren't always clear, and the crimes are often not reported by victims and police. 
 
 Robert Bowers, 46, faces 29 charges in all, including 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder and multiple counts of two hate crimes: obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in bodily injury to a public safety officer. 
 
 "The crimes of violence are based upon the federal civil rights laws prohibiting hate crimes," US Attorney Scott W. Brady and Bob Jones, FBI special agent in charge of Pittsburgh office, said in a statement. 
 
 The FBI, which calls an offense a hate crime when there's an added element of bias, is leading the investigation into the attack. 
 
 Bowers told a SWAT officer that he wanted all Jews to die and also that Jews were committing genocide to his people, according to CNN affiliate WTAE, citing a police criminal complaint filed Saturday evening in Pittsburgh. 
 
 Last year, The Anti-Defamation League reported, anti-Semitic incidents rose almost 60% , the largest single-year increase on record. 
 
 The ADL found 1,986 cases of harassment, vandalism or physical assaults against Jewish people or institutions in 2017. It found 1,267 in 2016. 
 
 "We're definitely in a period in our country where there's a general decrease in civility," Aryeh Tuchman, associate director for the ADL's Center on Extremism, said when the ADL released its findings in February. "People in the past who have tamped down their anti-Semitic proclivities may feel more liberated to express them than before." 
 
 'An escalating scourge of hate-based violence' 
 
 In a statement condemning the Pittsburgh attack, the Rabbinical Assembly said the shooting was a reminder that anti-Semitism "is on the rise in America at a rate unprecedented in decades." 
 
 "This vicious hate crime, perpetrated against innocent people at prayer is but the latest in an escalating scourge of hate-based violence in America," it said. 
 
 Moishe Bane, president of the Orthodox Union, expressed heartbreak for "the senseless murder of our fellow Jews and all victims of vicious hate crimes." 
 
 "We condemn the dangerous rhetoric that foments such senseless violence and we stand with the Tree of Life Congregation and the whole Pittsburgh community at this terrible time," he said. 
 
 Rabbi Elazar Muskin, president of the Rabbinical Council of America said "fringe elements of society" had become "emboldened by speech which is often disrespectful and hateful." 
 
 FBI says reports of hate crimes have increased 
 
 The FBI showed an overall increase in reported hate crimes of more than 4% from 2015 to 2016. 
 
 Anti-Islamic (anti-Muslim) crimes accounted for 307, up 19% from the previous year. That was the biggest percentage rise. 
 
 The FBI also tracks religiously motivated crimes against Eastern Orthodox Christians, other Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Buddhists. 
 
 In race categories, African Americans were targeted the most -- in about half of the reported 3,489 racially driven incidents in 2016. 
 
 The FBI said 1,200 incidents were motivated by bias against victims based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
– The FBI says hate crimes reports were up about 17% in 2017, marking a rise for the third year in a row. An annual report shows there were more than 7,100 reported hate crimes last year. There were increases in attacks motivated by racial bias (59.6% of incidents), religious bias (20.6%), and because of a victim's sexual orientation (15.8%). The report, released Tuesday, shows there was a nearly 23% increase in religion-based hate crimes, including a 37% spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker says the report is a "call to action," reports the AP. He says the offenses were "despicable violations of our core values as Americans." The FBI says that although the number of attacks has increased, so has the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate-crime data; roughly 1,000 additional agencies provided information.