There isn’t much question that race hate fueled the murder of Sasezley Richardson, a 19-year-old black teenager shot dead as he strolled back from a mall in Elkhart, Ind., with diapers for a friend’s baby. Police called it a hate crime from the start.

But today, Sasezley Richardson isn’t even a statistic. If you pick up a copy of the FBI’s "Hate Crime Statistics: 1999" report, you won’t find anything representing the death of this young man, shot dead on Nov. 17, 1999.

And Richardson wasn't the only forgotten victim.

Although official numbers consistently have documented fewer than 10,000 hate crimes a year, a 2005 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics suggests the true number is likely closer to 191,000. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, this means the real level of hate crimes runs between 19 and 31 times what has been officially reported for the past 15 years.

Backing this up, an investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, performed 10 years after the FBI began compiling hate crime statistics, found a system riddled with errors, omissions and even outright falsification of data.

It will take all of us to help fix the system. Join the Every Victim Counts campaign in advocating for:

1. Hate crime policies in every police department;
2. Hate crime training for every law enforcement officer; and
3. Hate crime reporting by every police department.

Accurate collection of hate crime data will equip communities with the information necessary to shape effective strategies to deal with and prevent hate crimes like the murder of Sasezley Richardson.

Do your part.
Because every victim counts.