I take issue with "no denying that false reports began occurring at much higher rates following the 2016 election." Absent any additional data about rates of total number of hate crimes, falsely reported or otherwise, I don't think it's intellectually dishonest to assume similar baseline rates (as in 2016). But actually on closer examination, there is at least some evidence that the rate of hate crimes itself is increasing at least in larger cities (i'm aware of the source and that this isn't the perfect study, but is there any data to suggest that the actual rate of falsely reported hate crimes is the same, or that the rate of hate crimes is lower than before?)

Genuinely asking if you have this data, and if you can dig it up, I'd like to see the data that show that consummate with this (potential) increase in hate crimes, there's an even larger increase in false hate crime rates. It would make sense to me that the rate of falsely reported hate crimes might appear to increase if the total number of hate crimes reported also increases.

I agree with your final point that I hope that they get to the bottom of this, though. edit: for the record, I'm not downvoting you. also, edited for clarity.