By Alexei Koseff, Sacramento Bee

While law enforcement officials have identified hate crimes as a growing problem in California, it is worse than the numbers would suggest.

California is undercounting hate crimes, according to a state audit released Thursday, because outdated policies have led law enforcement agencies to misidentify or fail to report incidents.

Hate crimes are criminal acts committed, at least in part, based on real or perceived characteristics of the victim, such as race, religion, gender, sexuality or disability. They spiked by more than 11 percent in 2016, the most recent year of data available, with race-related crimes topping the list.

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