Local officials increasingly targeted for threats and harassment, new data shows

Threats and harassment against local public officials rose in 2023, according to research tracking political violence and hostility provided to NBC News.

The researchers found that threats and harassment against officials including city council members, school board members, poll workers, mayors and local prosecutors increased significantly in the second half of the year. Elected or appointed government officials and judicial officials are most likely to face such hostility, they found, with death threats and invasions of privacy being the most common methods.

In an effort to monitor hostility facing local officials, Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative combed public reports and social media, drawing more than 750 examples of harassment into a database they plan to update monthly as a way of tracking the evolving threat landscape. The initiative is a research group that tracks political violence in the U.S.

Read more: NBC News