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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for racial profiling
49 results foundAuthor: Lamberth, John C. Title: Data Collection and Benchmarking of the Bias Policing Project: Final Report for the Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia Summary: One of the major issues in data analysis to date has been in determining the appropriate benchmark or standard to which the stop data are to be compared. The methodology employed in this study is one that has been employed in several studies across the country and is relied upon by several courts. This methodology employs what Lamberth Consulting believes to be the only appropriate benchmark for such an analysis; that is, a direct measure of the transient populations (driving populations and pedestrian populations) in specific locations. Details: West Chester, PA: Lamberth Consulting, 2006 Source: Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 104997 Keywords: Racial ProfilingTraffic StopsWashington, DC |
Author: Center for Constitutional Rights Title: Racial Disparity in NYPD Stops-and-Frisks: The Center for Constitutional Rights Preliminary Report on UF-250 Data from 2005 through June 2008. Summary: This report presents the following preliminary findings: 1) The NYPD's use of stop-and-frisk is on the rise; 2) The NYPD continues to disproportionately stop and frisk Black and Latino individuals; 3) Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be frisked after an NYPD-initiatited stop than Whites; 4) Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have physical force used against them during a NYPD-initiatied stop than Whites; 5) Stops-and-frisks result in a minimal weapons yield and/or contraband yield; and 6) The proportion of stops-and-frisks by race does not correspond with rates of arrest of summons. Details: New York: Center for Constitutional Rights, 2009. 20p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 119179 Keywords: Police DiscretionPolice MisconductPolice Use of ForcePolicing (New York City)Racial ProfilingSearches and Seizures |
Author: Levine, Harry G. Title: Targeting Blacks for Marijuana: Possession Arrests of African Americans in California, 2004-08 Summary: This report found that across the 25 largest counties in California the pot-holding arrest rate for blacks was often at least double that of whites despite evidence that indicates African-Americans use cannabis at a lower rate. Details: New York: Drug Policy Alliance, 2010. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 22, 2010 at: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/Targeting_Blacks_for_Marijuana_06_29_10.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/Targeting_Blacks_for_Marijuana_06_29_10.pdf Shelf Number: 119657 Keywords: African AmericansDrug Arrests (California)Drug OffendersMarijuanaRacial Profiling |
Author: Levine, Harry G. Title: Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City 1997-2007 Summary: This report is the first ever in-depth study of misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. The NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities. NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities. The report is based upon two years of observations in criminal courts as well as extensive interviews with public defenders; Legal Aid and private attorneys; veteran police officers; current and former prosecutors and judges; and those arrested for possessing marijuana. Details: New York: New York Civil Liberties Union, 2008. 102p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2010 at: http://www.nyclu.org/files/MARIJUANA-ARREST-CRUSADE_Final.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.nyclu.org/files/MARIJUANA-ARREST-CRUSADE_Final.pdf Shelf Number: 119813 Keywords: Drug ArrestsDrug EnforcementDrug OffendersMarijuanaRacial Profiling |
Author: Cambridge Review Committee Title: Missed Opportunities, Shared Responsibilities: Final Report of the Cambridge Review Committee Summary: The Cambridge Review Committee was appointed to investigate the circumstances that led to the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley on July 16, 2010 at Gates’s rented home on Ware Street (Cambridge, MA). The 12-member committee, chaired by Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, and including experts from across the nation, found that the events escalated because of misunderstandings and failed communications between the two men. Details: Cambridge, MA: The Committee, 2010. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2010 at: http://www.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/Cambridge%20Review_FINAL.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/Cambridge%20Review_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 119898 Keywords: Police-Community RelationsPolicingRace RelationsRacial Profiling |
Author: Lum, Cynthia Title: Does the "Race of Places" Influence Police Officer Decision Making? Summary: This study examines whether the race and ethnicity of small places influences police decisions at those places. While the importance of this ongoing inquiry in policing seems clear, there is much less consensus in its answer, or even how racial profiling is defined and measured. The research evidence had led to contentious debates on detecting the existence, meaning, and interpretation of racial profiling. These complexities are further challenged today’s policing environment, which is marked by a push for officers to engage in more place-based, proactive strategies that have been criticized for resulting in (or at least not being sensitive to) racially incongruent outcomes. Such complexities and new organizational and social contexts call for more and varied policing research in this area. In particular, more place-based research is warranted. Much of the existing research on race and police decision-making is individual-based, focusing on how the race and ethnicity of individuals influences outcomes such stopping an individual, continuing an investigation or making an arrest. However, how the characteristics of the places within which these incidents occur affects police discretion, has been much less examined. This is surprising given the place-based bias of many contemporary policing tactical innovations, high levels of concern about the legitimacy of police in the community, and most importantly, the profound effect that places can have on the mentality and world view of officers, which in turn shapes their actions while working in those places. This project adds to scant place-based research on race, ethnicity and discretion by examining how the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic characteristics of very small places influence officer decision making at those places. I examined 267,937 incidents that occur in an urban, diverse metropolitan area on the west coast of the U.S. These crimes occurred at all places, were of many different crime and disorder types, and resulted in various outcomes. I also did not limit analysis to a comparison between how White and Black composition affected decisions about these incidents, as has been traditionally done, but included multiple racial, ethnic, language, and foreign-born place-based categories are explored. To examine decision making about each of these incidents across the city, I create a more robust measure of discretion – the decision-making pathway. The decision pathway is a series of decision points related to an event, including whether to stop an individual, dismiss a call, investigate further, write a report, make an arrest, or increase or decrease the severity of a report or arrest charge. Decisions were linked together for each incident, and then characterized and scored according to “upgrades” or “downgrades” in both action and crime classification at each decision point. Each pathway was then geocoded and linked to other place-based characteristics, including racial, ethnic, foreign-born, and language composition of areas. Three place-based cues seem to consistently matter in systematic biases of officer decision making: the proportion of residents that are Black, the level of wealth in that area (the most consistent socioeconomic factor that significantly affected the models), and the amount of violence in a block group. For the first two, police show significant evidence of downgrading calls – handling them less formally (less likely to write reports or make arrests) and reducing the seriousness of crime classifications. But, while both wealthy and less socially disorganized block groupings with high proportions of Black residents both evidence downgrading, there is less downgrading in high-proportion Black communities compared to high-proportion wealthy communities. And, these effects held significant after including a number of socioeconomic and crime-related variables; no other racial group or ethnic subgroup showed the same effect on decision pathways, although there were interesting point-to-point findings for places with larger Asian and Hispanic populations. This study indicates that it is not sufficient only to examine the individual racial characteristics of individuals involved in police action, but that the racial and ethnic environment of places also matters. However, despite these steps forward, this study, like so many others examining whether disparities in police service exist, still cannot tell us why we see this differential response or illuminate individual officer motivation. Proving intent for prejudice is not only difficult short of admission, but such prejudice is intricately part of human behavior, and can be hidden under layers of consciousness, organizational rules, symbolic interactions, and worldviews. Additionally, the origination of the disparities that emerge from this analysis may not unilaterally come from the police; they may arise from an interaction between officers’ supply of law enforcement and the demand of services by the community. But deciphering motivations may be a dead-end approach. Rather, the recommendations in the final report focus on changes police might consider to operational tactics, supervisory strategies, and organizational culture and learning that can counteract such biases. Details: Washington, DC: George Mason University, Administration of Justice Department, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, 2009. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2010 at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/231931.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/231931.pdf Shelf Number: 119913 Keywords: Police DiscretionRace and CrimeRace/EthnicityRacial ProfilingSocioeconomic Status |
Author: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Title: Police and Roma and Sinti: Good Practices in Building Trust and Understanding Summary: The relation between the police and Roma and Sinti communities is crucial in many ways. Roma and Sinti are often targets of racially motivated discrimination and violence. They need to be able to fully rely on the police for protection against – and the full investigation of – hate-motivated crimes. At the same time, the police face the challenge of effectively policing Roma and Sinti communities that often view such efforts with suspicion and mistrust, fed by a long history of abuse and discrimination at the hands of various state authorities. In the 2003 OSCE Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, participating States recognized the importance of good relations between the police and Roma and Sinti communities for the overall goal of combating discrimination and racial violence, and for ensuring that Roma and Sinti people are able to play a full and equal part in society. Participating States committed themselves to a number of measures aimed at closing the gap between international standards on police and existing national practices. Seven years after the adoption of the Action Plan, a number of initiatives of good practice have been developed regarding policing and Roma and Sinti. At the same time, much remains to be done to fully implement the commitments contained in the Action Plan. Sadly, cases of police misconduct and tensions between law enforcement agencies and Roma and Sinti communities continue to be widely reported from many participating States. This publication aims to assist participating States in implementing their commitments under the Action Plan by identifying principles and good practices that can be used in efforts to improve relations between the police and Roma and Sinti communities. Better co-operation and increased trust in relations with the police can lead to more effective policing and in turn improved security for Roma and Sinti communities. In addition, the police are also poised to benefit from better relations. Details: Vienna: OSCE, 2010. 143p. Source: Internet Resource: SPMU Publication Series Vol. 9: Accessed December 3, 2010 at: http://www.osce.org/publications/odihr/2010/04/43671_1452_en.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Europe URL: http://www.osce.org/publications/odihr/2010/04/43671_1452_en.pdf Shelf Number: 120381 Keywords: Ethnic GroupsGypsiesHate CrimesPolice TrainingPolice-Community RelationsRacial Profiling |
Author: Bandyopadhyay, Siddhartha Title: Crime Reporting: Profiling and Neighbourhood Observation Summary: We consider the effect of giving incentives to ordinary citizens to report potential criminal activity. Additionally we look at the effect of "profiling" and biased reporting. If police single out or profile a group for more investigation, then crime in the profiled group decreases. If a certain group is reported on more frequently through biased reporting by citizens, crime in the group reported on actually increases. In the second model, we consider a neighbourhood structure where individuals get information on possible criminal activity by neighbours on one side and decide whether to report or not based on the signal. When costs of reporting are low relative to the cost of being investigated, costs of investigation are increasing in the number of reports and there is at least one biased individual, we show there is a "contagion equilibrium" where everyone reports his or her neighbour. Details: Working Paper Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 9, 2011 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1691844 Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1691844 Shelf Number: 120736 Keywords: BiasNeighbourhoods and CrimeRacial Profiling |
Author: Fridell, Lori Title: Fair and Impartial Policing: Recommendations for the City and Police Department of San Francisco Summary: Two articles published by the San Francisco Chronicle (SFC)–one in December 2006 and another in March 2007–brought the national issue of racially biased policing back to the fore in San Francisco. The Mayor, Police Chief and Police Commission expressed concerns about the SFC report that the African American arrest rate in San Francisco was two to four times higher than the corresponding rates in other large California cities. I was asked to assist the City by completing the following tasks: • Conduct briefings with a group of community stakeholders and with a group of police personnel in which I would present a framework for ongoing discussions in the city about fair and impartial policing. • Review and comment on the information presented in the SFC regarding the high African American arrest rate and review and comment on a subsequent article on officer compliance with the vehicle stop data collection program of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). • Conduct a preliminary review of the efforts on the part of the SFPD to promote fair and impartial policing. These tasks culminate in this report that summarizes my reviews above and sets forth a plan for the city of San Francisco that would facilitate full fair and impartial policing. Following the introduction of the report, I provide in Section II, a framework for discussing and thinking about fair and impartial policing. I address the various ways that racially biased policing might manifest, the nature of the national discussion, the challenge of measuring racial bias in policing, and the elements of a comprehensive response to achieve fair and impartial policing. In Sections III and IV, I comment on the two articles published by the San Francisco Chronicle. Section III discusses the article published on 12/17/2006 that reported that San Francisco had the highest rate of African American arrests (relative to residential population) compared to seven other large California cities. Section IV discusses the article published on 3/7/2007 regarding the vehicle stop data collected by the SFPD in an effort to measure racial bias. Section V contains my recommendations for the City and the Police Department. In that section I provide a rationale for the direction I propose for the City and SFPD, recommend a structure/process for implementation, and then present a series of recommendations using as a framework the elements of a comprehensive program for achieving fair and impartial policing." Details: San Francisco: Office of the Mayor, 2007. 93p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 11, 2011 at: https://sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/FileCenter/Documents/14851-Fair_and_Iimpartial_Policing_Report.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: https://sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/FileCenter/Documents/14851-Fair_and_Iimpartial_Policing_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 107667 Keywords: Bias, in PolicingPolicing (San Francisco)Racial Profiling |
Author: Weissman, Deborah M. Title: The Policies and Politics of Local Immigration Enforcement Laws: 287(g) Program in North Carolina Summary: In 1996, the US Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to include section 287(g), authorizing the federal agency U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter into agreements with local law enforcement agencies, thereby deputizing officers to act as immigration officers in the course of their daily activities. These individual agreements are commonly known as Memoranda of Agreement or MOAs. It is estimated that over sixty law enforcement agencies have entered into such agreements, with eight MOAs currently in North Carolina. The 287(g) program was originally intended to target and remove undocumented immigrants convicted of “violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering.” However, MOAs are in actuality being used to purge towns and cities of “unwelcome” immigrants and thereby having detrimental effects on North Carolina’s communities. Such effects include: • The marginalization of an already vulnerable population, as 287(g) encourages, or at the very least tolerates, racial profiling and baseless stereotyping, resulting in the harassment of citizens and isolation of the Hispanic community. • A fear of law enforcement that causes immigrant communities to refrain from reporting crimes, thereby compromising public safety for immigrants and citizens alike. • Economic devastation for already struggling municipalities, as immigrants are forced to flee communities, causing a loss of profits for local businesses and a decrease in tax revenues. • Violations of basic American liberties and legal protections that threaten to diminish the civil rights of citizens and ease the way for future encroachments into basic fundamental freedoms. The current implementation processes of 287(g) also present a number of legal issues which implicate many individual rights and threaten to compromise the rights of the community as a whole. Details: Raleigh, NC: American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation: Chapel Hill, NC: Immigration & Human Rights Policy Clinic, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, 2009. 147p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 15, 2011 at: http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/clinicalprograms/287gpolicyreview.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/clinicalprograms/287gpolicyreview.pdf Shelf Number: 120773 Keywords: -ImmigrationIllegal ImmigrantsImmigrants (North Carolina)Law EnforcementRacial Profiling |
Author: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Title: Understanding and Preventing Discriminatory Ethnic Profiling: A Guide Summary: ‘Ethnic profiling’ is not a new practice in the Member States of the European Union, but it appears to have become more prominent in reaction to the terrorist bombings in the United States of America (USA, 2001), Madrid (2004) and London (2005), as well as increased concerns over illegal immigration. In turn, concerns have been raised by intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU), as well as non-governmental organisations working in the area of human rights protection. In particular, it has been argued that ethnic profi ling not only conflicts with law relating to discrimination, but also has damaging social effects. Nevertheless, the practice of ‘ethnic profiling’ in Europe is generally under-reported and little understood outside of the United Kingdom (UK). The UK has been addressing discriminatory ethnic profiling since the 1980s and, as a result, has built up a strong research basis as well as numerous policy responses to the issue. However, the recognition of discriminatory ethnic profi ling practices has not been aff orded as much attention in other EU Member States. As a reflection of this, the European literature overwhelmingly originates from the UK, entailing that a large number of examples used throughout this Guide have been extracted from the UK context. It must, however, be noted that the EU and the European Parliament in particular have identified the problem of profiling as a pressing issue in the areas of counter-terrorism, law enforcement, immigration, customs and border control.(1) With this in mind, this Guide sets out to introduce the enquiring reader to the subject of ‘ethnic profiling’ as a concept and a practice, and one which can be challenged with respect to its potential to discriminate and undermine fundamental rights. This publication is primarily designed for officers at management level in law enforcement agencies. It is intended to improve understanding of the theory and practice of ‘ethnic profiling’ and place it within a legal and social context. It does so by explaining how ‘profiling’ is used in general contexts outside of law enforcement, such as in the area of market research. It then looks at profiling as a practice in the context of law enforcement. In particular, the Guide explains when profiling that uses race, ethnicity or religion will be considered to be discriminatory and therefore unlawful, and under which circumstances reference to these characteristics may be permissible. The Guide then goes on to look at the harmful effects of discriminatory ethnic profiling, its effectiveness as a law enforcement tool, as well as alternative policing methods and safeguards against the misuse of profiling. Details: Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2010. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed February 22, 2011 at: http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/Guide_ethnic_profiling.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/Guide_ethnic_profiling.pdf Shelf Number: 120864 Keywords: DiscriminationRace/EthnicityRacial Profiling |
Author: Kadar, Andras Title: Control(led) Group - Final Report on the Strategies for Effective Police Stop and Search (STEPSS) Project (2008) Summary: ID check is the most frequently used police measure in Hungary: on average, more than 1.5 million checks have been conducted in recent years. However, the practice of ID checks has not been analyzed so far. Therefore, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee sought to assess the typical grounds of ID checks and the efficiency of this police measure in the framework of a project financially supported by the European Commission’s AGIS Program and the Open Society Institute. It was also examined whether there is a discriminatory tendency regarding ID checks, namely if members of the Roma minority are ID checked in unjustified and disproportionate numbers compared to their non-Roma peers. The current report provides a brief description of the project methodology and the sometimes surprising results of the project. Details: Budapest, Hungary: Hungarian Helsinki Committee, 2008. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2011 at: http://helsinki.webdialog.hu/dokumentum/MHB_STEPSS_US.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Hungary URL: http://helsinki.webdialog.hu/dokumentum/MHB_STEPSS_US.pdf Shelf Number: 121505 Keywords: GypsiesPolice DiscretionRacial DiscriminationRacial ProfilingTraffic Stops (Hungary) |
Author: Gardner, Trevor, II Title: The C.A.P. Effect: Racial Profiling in the ICE Criminal Alien Program Summary: The goal of the Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is to improve safety by promoting federal-local partnerships to target serious criminal offenders for deportation. Indeed, the U.S. Congress has made clear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “should have no greater immigration enforcement priority than to remove deportable aliens with serious criminal histories from the United States, …” The Warren Institute’s analysis of arrest data pursuant to an ICE-local partnership in Irving, Texas demonstrates that ICE is not following Congress’ mandate to focus resources on the deportation of immigrants with serious criminal histories. This study also shows that immediately after Irving, Texas law enforcement had 24-hour access (via telephone and video teleconference) to ICE in the local jail, discretionary arrests of Hispanics for petty offenses — particularly minor traffic offenses — rose dramatically. This report probes the marked rise in low-level arrests of Hispanics. Specifically, the report examines whether there was an increase in lawless behavior in the Hispanic community in Irving or whether there was a change in local policing priorities. The Warren Institute’s study of arrest data finds strong evidence to support claims that Irving police engaged in racial profiling of Hispanics in order to filter them through the CAP screening system. Details: Berkeley, CA: Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity & Diversity, University of California, Berkeley Law School, 2009. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief: Accessed October 22, 2011 at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/policybrief_irving_FINAL.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/policybrief_irving_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 123082 Keywords: Criminal AliensDeportationHispanicsIllegal AliensImmigrants (U.S.)Racial Profiling |
Author: Kohli, Aarti Title: Secure Communities by the Numbers: An Analysis of Demographics and Due Process Summary: The United States will deport a record number of individuals this year, due in large part to rapidly expanding federal immigration programs that rely on local law enforcement. The numbers are sobering: annual deportations have increased over 400% since 1996 and more than a million people have been removed from this country since the beginning of the Obama administration. Almost 300,000 individuals are currently in deportation proceedings but have not yet been removed. The newest and most controversial immigration enforcement program partnering with local law enforcement is Secure Communities. Secure Communities was introduced by the Bush administration in March 2008 and piloted in 14 jurisdictions beginning in October 2008. Under President Obama, the program has expanded dramatically. As of the drafting of this report, Secure Communities is active in 1,595 jurisdictions in 44 states and territories, a 65% increase since the beginning of this year. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated that it plans to have the program active in all jurisdictions in the United States by 2013. Like earlier programs such as the 287(g) program and the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), Secure Communities mobilizes local law enforcement agencies’ resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws. Whereas earlier programs such as 287(g) trained law enforcement agents to assist with immigration enforcement, Secure Communities relies heavily on almost instantaneous electronic data sharing. This data sharing has transformed the landscape of immigration enforcement by allowing ICE to effectively run federal immigration checks on every individual booked into a local county jail, usually while still in pre-trial custody. It has long been the case that local law enforcement agencies electronically share fingerprint data from the people they arrest with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If that data comes from a Secure Communities jurisdiction, however, the FBI now forwards the fingerprints to the DHS. DHS checks the fingerprints against the Automated Biometric Identification System, also known as IDENT, a fingerprint repository containing information on over 91 million individuals, including travelers, applicants for immigration benefits, and immigrants who have previously violated immigration laws. When a match is detected, ICE reportedly examines its records to determine whether the person is deportable. If ICE believes an individual may be deportable, or if ICE wishes to further investigate an individual’s immigration status, then ICE issues a detainer. The detainer is a request to the local police to notify immigration authorities when the individual is going to be released from criminal custody and to hold the individual for up to two days for transfer to ICE. Despite the scrutiny that the program has generated in the public sphere, the federal government has conducted limited systematic analysis of its own data on individuals who are arrested under Secure Communities. To address this gap in knowledge, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley School of Law has undertaken a comprehensive study of data provided by the federal government to the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON), the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law pursuant to a partial settlement in NDLON v. ICE. This initial report is the first in a series based on that data. In this report, we attempt to better understand the profile of individuals who have been apprehended through Secure Communities and the process they have encountered as they are funneled through the system. Overall, the findings point to a system in which individuals are pushed through rapidly, without appropriate checks or opportunities to challenge their detention and/or deportation. This conclusion is particularly concerning given that the findings also reveal that people are being apprehended who should never have been placed in immigration custody, and that certain groups are over-represented in our sample population. Details: Berkeley, CA: Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley Law School, 2011. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 22, 2011 at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Secure_Communities_by_the_Numbers.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Secure_Communities_by_the_Numbers.pdf Shelf Number: 123083 Keywords: DeportationIllegal AliensImmigrantsImmigration EnforcementRacial Profiling |
Author: Harcourt, Bernard E. Title: Henry Louis Gates and Racial Profiling: What's the Problem? Summary: A string of recent studies has documented significant racial disparities in police stops, searches, and arrests across the country. The issue of racial profiling, however, did not receive national attention until the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., at his home in Cambridge. This raises three questions: First, did Sergeant Crowley engage in racial profiling when he arrested Professor Gates? Second, why does it take the wrongful arrest of a respected member of an elite community to focus the attention of the country? Third, why is racial profiling so pervasive in American policing? The answers to these questions are interconnected: they turn on the fact that racial profiling is just another form of statistical discrimination and that, today, we all embrace statistical discrimination as efficient and justified whenever there are group-based differences in behavior or fact disparities. We have all become, today, statistical discriminators. This answer, though, points to a solution in the racial profiling quandary, because statistical discrimination is misguided in dynamic situations where there are feedback effects. In policing, it is counter-productive to the law enforcement objective of reducing crime. Like Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres’s metaphor of the miner’s canary, the racial dimension of racial profiling is what troubles us in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates. But, just like the canary whose distress is a warning that the air in the mine is poisoned, the troubling aspect of race in the debate over racial profiling points to the larger problems of statistical discrimination writ large. Details: Chicago: Law School, University of Chicago, 2009. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Paper Presented at the Malcolm Wiener Inequality & Social Policy Program, Harvard University, U of Chicago, Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 482, U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 277: Accessed November 1, 2011 at: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/482-277-bh-Gates.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/482-277-bh-Gates.pdf Shelf Number: 123211 Keywords: Discrimination in Law EnforcementRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law Enforcement |
Author: Lovrich, Nicholas P. Title: Results of the Monitoring of WSP Traffic Stops for Biased Policing: Analysis of WSP Stop, Citation, Search and Use of Force Data and Results of the Use of Observational Studies for Denominator Assessment Summary: This portion of the final report prepared under the auspices of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Grant-Funded Study on Racial Profiling Phenomena in Washington State [OGRD # 107828] sets forth findings derived from the independent monitoring of traffic stop data collected by the WSP. This report contains the results of an analysis of traffic stops, traffic citations, searches and use of force for evidence of biased policing. Our analysis of agency data is carried out both at the statewide and individual Autonomous Patrol Area (APA) levels. Our analysis indicates very few instances of noteworthy minority/non-minority disparities in the use of police discretion by the officers of the Washington State Patrol. Most importantly, there is no evidence of a systematic practice of racial profiling in either who is stopped, who is issued a citation, who is searched, and to whom force is applied by WSP officers. In addition to these substantive findings, this report also contains findings derived from a testing of the utility of racial coded traffic collision data as a “denominator” for racial profiling assessments by means of three observational studies conducted with digital photography. Those results indicate that collision data are likely to represent a reliable and cost-effective indicator of driver population demographics, making the monitoring of racial profiling an affordable practice in nearly all police jurisdictions. Details: Pullman, WA: Division of Governmental Studies and Services, Washington State University, 2007. 70p. Source: Report to the Washington State Patrol Relating to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Grant-Funded Study on Racial Profiling Phenomena in Washington State OFRD #107828: Internet Resource: Accessed February 21, 2012 at http://www.wsp.wa.gov/publications/reports/wsu_2007_report.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/publications/reports/wsu_2007_report.pdf Shelf Number: 124223 Keywords: -Racial DisparitiesPolice BehaviorRacial ProfilingTraffic Stops (Washington) |
Author: Gau, Jacinta M. Title: Report of Results of the 2007 Citizen Survey. Eighth Periodic Survey of Public Attitudes Toward the Washington State Patrol: Focus on Racial Profiling and Aggressive Driving and Longitudinal Assessment, 1992 – 2007 Summary: This report is the eighth in a series of Washington State citizen assessments of the performance of the Washington State Patrol. As with the previous assessments, this survey was conducted by mail. The survey sample was selected randomly from 10 universes of potential respondents: Citizens who were cited (arrested) by the WSP; citizens to whom the WSP issued written warnings; citizens who received verbal warnings; citizens who were searched by WSP troopers; citizens who were rendered assistance by troopers; four autonomous patrol areas of high minority contacts (Kelso, Sunnyside, Highway 99, and South King County); and a random cross-section of Washington State residents. The purpose of the survey was twofold: 1) to provide the WSP with feedback concerning citizens’ current opinions and attitudes about troopers; and 2) to offer a longitudinal comparison of how those opinions and attitudes have changed over time. It should be noted that some changes have been made to the 2007 questionnaire items that may preclude a full comparison between 2007 and prior years; nevertheless, the key questions remain the same and can be used for trend analysis. In addition, the sampling procedure allows for comparisons between those who have been sanctioned by the WSP (citation, search, etc.), those who have been assisted by the WSP, and a random sample of Washington State citizens who may or may not have had recent contact with the WSP. Each survey in the series has featured a new topic area that is of interest to the WSP at the time of the survey. The featured topic area in the 2007 survey is road rage and aggressive driving. The survey contained items asking respondents to indicate the extent to which these behaviors are a problem in Washington, and to report their perceptions of the effort that WSP has invested in addressing these problems. The 2007 survey also included a question tapping citizens’ attitudes about whether or not the WSP uses driver race as a basis for making traffic stops. The inclusion of this question allows for ongoing monitoring of the public’s attitudes about the incidence of racial profiling by the WSP. Though the bulk of the survey was quantitative in nature, there was a qualitative aspect as well. Respondents had several opportunities throughout the survey to provide written elaborations on their views about road rage and aggressive driving, about their satisfaction with WSP services, about biased policing, and about other traffic- and driving-related issues. These comments were analyzed to determine if common themes emerged; that is, whether large groups of respondents wrote about the same problem(s). Ten such themes emerged from this analysis: 1) concern was expressed about road rage and aggressive or reckless driving; 2) problems were noted with semi-truck drivers; 3) concerns about under-enforcement of traffic laws by the WSP were expressed; 4) overlylenient treatment of traffic law violators by the legislature and/or courts were cited; 5) citizens’ views on WSP ticketing practices were noted (e.g., the belief that quotas guide troopers’ discretion); 6) biased policing was noted; 7) confusion regarding the WSP’s mission and function as a law enforcement agency was expressed; 8) concern was voiced regarding limited visibility and level of service that the WSP provides in areas where some people drive; 9) there was disappointment in troopers’ demeanor and respectfulness; and 10) attitudes about the professionalism and overall effectiveness of the WSP were described. The results of the content analysis will be summarized in Part 4 of this report, and the full analysis is located in Appendix B. Details: Pullman, WA: Washington State University, Division of Governmental Studies and Services, 2007. 198p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 27, 2012 at: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/publications/reports/citizen07.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/publications/reports/citizen07.pdf Shelf Number: 124296 Keywords: Aggressive DrivingPolice-Citizen Interactions (Washington State)Public OpinionRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementRoad Rage |
Author: Perez, Thomas E. Title: United States' Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Summary: We write to report the findings of the Civil Rights Division's investigation into civil rights violations by the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office ("MCSO"). Our initial inquiry began in June 2008, and the investigation has focused on MCSO's compliance with the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 42 U.S.C. § 14141 ("Section 14141"), and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d-7 and its implementing regulations at 28 C.F.R. § 42.101 et seq. ("Title VI"). Section 14141 prohibits law enforcement agencies, such as MCSO, from engaging in activities that amount to a pattern or practice of violating the Constitution or laws of the United States. Title VI and its implementing regulations provide that recipients of federal financial assistance, such as MCSO, may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. These laws give the United States the authority to file legal action and obtain the necessary relief to ensure compliance with the Constitution and laws of the United States. We notified MCSO of our formal investigation in March 2009. During our investigation, aided by four leading police practice experts, one jail expert, and an expert on statistical analysis, we reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documentary evidence; toured MCSO'sjails; and interviewed over 400 individuals, including approximately 150 former and current MCSO jail inmates, and more than 75 former and current MCSO personnel, including the Sheriff, the Chief of Enforcement, the Chief of Patrol, the Administrative Investigative Commander, the Sergeant heading MCSO's Criminal Employment Squad, and the Lieutenant heading MCSO's Human Smuggling Unit. 2Based upon our extensive investigation, we find reasonable cause to believe that MCSO engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. Specifically, we find that MCSO, through the actions of its deputies, supervisory staff, and command staff, engages in racial profiling of Latinos; unlawfully stops, detains, and arrests Latinos; and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain about or criticize MCSO's policies or practices, all in violation of Section 14141. MCSO's discriminatory police conduct additionally violates Title VI and its implementing regulations. We also find reasonable cause to believe that MCSO operates its jails in a manner that discriminates against its limited English proficient ("LEP") Latino inmates. Specifically, we find that MCSO, through the actions of its deputies, detention officers, supervisory staff, and command staff, routinely punishes Latino LEP inmates for failing to understand commands given in English and denies them critical services provided to the other inmates, all in violation of Title VI and its implementing regulations. The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing, along with the deviations from widely accepted policing and correctional practices, and the failure to implement meaningful oversight and accountability structures, have contributed to a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations. In addition to the formal findings noted above, we have identified three additional areas of serious concern that, while not warranting a formal pattern or practice finding at this time, require further investigation. First, our investigation revealed a number of troubling incidents involving MCSO deputies using excessive force against Latinos. Second, we observed that MCSO has implemented its immigration enforcement program in a way that has created a "wall of distrust" between MCSO officers and Maricopa County's Latino residents-a wall of distrust that has significantly compromised MCSO's ability to provide police protection to Maricopa County's Latino residents? Third, we have expanded our investigation to encompass a review of serious allegations that MCSO failed to investigate a large number of sex crimes. Given the systemic nature ofMCSO's constitutional violations, effective resolution of this matter will require the development of a comprehensive written agreement along with federal judicial oversight. We prefer to resolve this matter without resort to further litigation, although we will not hesitate to file suit, if necessary. We would like to immediately begin a constructive dialogue about comprehensive and sustainable ways to remedy the identified violations of the Constitution and federal law. Please let us know by close of business on January 4,2012, ifMCSO is interested in having this dialogue. IfMCSO is not interested or if we deem that MCSO is not engaged in good-faith efforts to achieve compliance by voluntary means, we are prepared to file a civil action to compel compliance. In the remainder of this letter, we highlight our factual and legal findings, broadly describe our investigation ofMCSO's practices, provide an outline of our factual findings in sufficient detail to give you fair notice of the violations committed, briefly discuss how those 3factual findings relate to MCSO's violations of federal law, and outline the remedial measures MCSO must undertake to comply with the law. Details: Washington, DC: Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 2011. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 11, 2012 at http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/mcso_findletter_12-15-11.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/mcso_findletter_12-15-11.pdf Shelf Number: 124464 Keywords: Correctional Institutions (Arizona)Police Behavior (Arizona)Racial ProfilingTraffic Stops |
Author: Feder, Jody Title: Racial Profiling: Legal and Constitutional Issues Summary: Racial profiling is the practice of targeting individuals for police or security detention based on their race or ethnicity in the belief that certain minority groups are more likely to engage in unlawful behavior. Examples of racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are illustrated in legal settlements and data collected by governmental agencies and private groups, suggesting that minorities are disproportionately the subject of routine traffic stops and other security-related practices. The issue has periodically attracted congressional interest, particularly with regard to existing and proposed legislative safeguards, which include the proposed End Racial Profiling Act of 2011 (H.R. 3618/S. 1670) in the 112th Congress. Several courts have considered the constitutional ramifications of the practice as an “unreasonable search and seizure” under the Fourth Amendment and, more recently, as a denial of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee. A variety of federal and state statutes provide potential relief to individuals who claim that their rights are violated by race-based law enforcement practices and policies. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2012. 16p. Source: CRS RL31130: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2012 at https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31130.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31130.pdf Shelf Number: 125249 Keywords: Laws and Legal ProceduresPolice BehaviorRacial DisparityRacial Profiling |
Author: Forman, James Title: Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow Summary: In the last decade, a number of scholars have called the American criminal justice system a new form of Jim Crow. These writers have effectively drawn attention to the injustices created by a facially race-neutral system that severely ostracizes offenders and stigmatizes young, poor black men as criminals. This Article argues that despite these important contributions, the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration. The analogy presents an incomplete account of mass incarceration’s historical origins, fails to consider black attitudes toward crime and punishment, ignores violent crimes while focusing almost exclusively on drug crimes, obscures class distinctions within the African American community, and overlooks the effects of mass incarceration on other racial groups. Finally, the Jim Crow analogy diminishes our collective memory of the Old Jim Crow’s particular harms. Details: New Haven, CT: Yale University School of Law, 2012. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 243: Accessed June 27, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1966018 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1966018 Shelf Number: 125410 Keywords: African American Prisoners (U.S.)Civil RightsDisenfranchisementRacial DiscriminationRacial ProfilingUrban Poor |
Author: Neild, Rachel Title: Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: A Handbook of Good Practices Summary: Ethnic profiling by police in Europe is a widespread form of discrimination. By focusing on appearance rather than behavior, police who engage in ethnic profiling violate basic human rights norms. Ethnic profiling is also inefficient: it leads police to focus on racial and ethnic traits rather than genuine indicators of suspicion, and results in stopping and searching large numbers of innocent people. Fortunately, better alternatives exist— approaches to policing that are more fair and more effective. This handbook documents those approaches and provides guidance for police officers, other law enforcement officials, and policymakers in how to reduce ethnic profiling. The guidelines and case studies set forth in the following pages are intended to help cut down on discrimination and increase police efficacy. Ethnic profiling is the practice of using ethnicity, race, national origin, or religion as a basis for making law enforcement decisions about persons believed to be involved in criminal activity. Ethnic profiling can result from discriminatory decision-making by individual law enforcement officers, or from law enforcement policies and practices that have a disproportionate impact on specific groups without any legitimate law enforcement purpose. It is often the result of beliefs deeply-ingrained in individual law enforcement officers and even whole institutions and the societies in which they operate. While not a new phenomenon, ethnic profiling has increased in the European Union in recent years because of two factors: (1) rising concern about illegal immigration into and movement of undocumented migrants within the European Union, and (2) the threat posed by terrorism in the aftermath of September 11th terrorist attack in the United States and the subsequent March 2003 terrorist bombings in Madrid and July 2005 bombings in London. These trends are described in detail in the Open Society Justice Initiative’s 2009 report Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: Pervasive, Ineffective, and Discriminatory. The United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission have highlighted ethnic profiling as a particular area of concern with respect to discriminatory policing practices. International human rights monitoring bodies have likewise highlighted ethnic profiling as an area of concern. The first step in addressing ethnic profiling is to admit its existence and recognize its discriminatory nature. The next step is deciding what to do about it. The final step is implementing new policies and practices that reduce ethnic profiling and replace it with more reasoned and effective procedures. Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union aims to assist in this process by offering diagnostic questions, providing ideas and models of proven good practice, and identifying challenges and impediments to reform. It is the result of a thorough review of existing laws and relevant academic literature, field testing of specific reforms, and extensive interactions with state authorities, law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations, and local ethnic minority communities across the EU. Ethnic profiling is not an easy issue to resolve. Law enforcement agencies may feel that a focus on ethnic profiling unfairly singles them out as racist. For ethnic minority persons and communities, discussions of ethnic profiling highlight stereotypes about minorities and offending. But while discussions of discrimination and racism are never easy, reducing ethnic profiling can be a win-win proposition that benefits law enforcement agencies and the many communities they serve. Both research and first-hand experience—exemplified in the case studies throughout this handbook—demonstrate that adopting good practices not only supports fairer policing but can also improve the effectiveness of law enforcement. This handbook provides a wide-ranging review of current efforts to reduce ethnic profiling and support non-discriminatory law enforcement. Its numerous case studies examine: non-discriminatory standards established in legal instruments and operational guidelines, research and monitoring methodologies, institutional practices that create non-discriminatory workplaces that reflect the societies they serve, and models of community outreach and engagement. The case studies and explanatory text aim to provide clear and practical support to all those seeking to understand the dynamics and reduce the frequency of ethnic profiling. Taken together, they offer a holistic approach to law enforcement that does not discriminate. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2012. 232p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2013 at: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/reducing-ep-in-EU-12172012_0.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Europe URL: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/reducing-ep-in-EU-12172012_0.pdf Shelf Number: 128178 Keywords: DiscriminationEthnicityPolice BehaviorRacial Profiling |
Author: Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Every 36 Hours Campaign Title: Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes Summary: The facts presented in Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Black People present us with a deeper understanding of the utter disregard held for Black life within the United States. Operation Ghetto Storm is a window offering a cold, hard, and fact‐based view into the thinking and practice of a government and a society that will spare no cost to control the lives of Black people. What Operation Ghetto Storm reveals is that the practice of executing Black people without pretense of a trial, jury, or judge is an integral part of the governments current overall strategy of containing the Black community in a state of perpetual colonial subjugation and exploitation. Details: Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 2013. 130p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 28, 2013 at: www.mxgm.org Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 129441 Keywords: BiasExtrajudicial ExecutionsHomicidesRace/Ethnicity (U.S.)Racial ProfilingVigilantism |
Author: Chainey, Spencer Title: Stop and Search, the Use of Intelligence and Geographic Targeting: Findings from Case Study Research Summary: This report presents findings from research carried out in the mid-2000s to examine the role played by intelligence in police stop and search practices. As earlier research has suggested that the effective use of intelligence in stop and search can help improve the effectiveness and the fairness of the power (Quinton et al 2000), the study focused on three main questions: 1. To what extent was intelligence used by police in their routine use of stop and search? 2. To what extent were statistical and geographical patterns of searches consistent with the application of intelligence to search practices? 3. What were the potential implications of the application of intelligence for race disproportionality in stop and search? To address these questions, the study relied on in-depth interviews with operational officers from two case study police forces, and statistical and geographical analysis of search records from a further five case study sites. It should be noted that, since the work was conducted, police practices may have changed in the case study sites and across the wider service. Nevertheless, the research remains of relevance to policy-makers and practitioners because of the high profile nature of stop and search, and the continuing absence of robust empirical research on its effectiveness. More importantly, there is scope for forces to build of the analysis presented here due to: new statistical techniques becoming available; and the expanded use of mobile devices allowing search records to be geocoded automatically. Details: London: NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency), 2012. 97p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 11, 2014 at: http://www.college.police.uk/en/docs/Stop_search_geographic_targeting_Report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.college.police.uk/en/docs/Stop_search_geographic_targeting_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 131849 Keywords: Geographic Profiling Intelligence-led Policing Police Discretion Racial ProfilingStop and Search |
Author: Opportunity Agenda Title: An Overview of Public Opinion and Discourse on Criminal Justice Issues Summary: Our report, "An Overview of Public Opinion and Discourse on Criminal Justice Issues," examines the American public discourse on crime, the criminal justice system, and criminal justice reform. The report is divided into four sections. - Public Opinion Research: This section seeks to understand the extent and the direction of America's changing attitudes toward the criminal justice system. - Media Coverage of Criminal Justice Reform: This part analyzes how mainstream media covers criminal justice reform issues. - Media Coverage of Racial Justice Issues: This analysis looks at the coverage of racial profiling in major U.S. newspapers, broadcast news shows, and popular news blogs. - Criminal Justice and Social Media: This section analyzes and explains social media content, engagement, and trends on discourse around criminal justice. The report seeks to help reform leaders, organizations, and allies to build public support for effective solutions to criminal justice issues. It also provides useful insights for journalists, news outlets, and commentators who cover-or could cover-criminal justice. America's Views on Criminal Justice Despite America's decreasing crime rates, the country's criminal justice system is larger than ever. The economic and social impact of incarcerating 2.3 million Americans affects many communities, homes, and families alike. Nevertheless, Americans' views on the criminal justice system have changed, creating the environment for key stakeholders in government agencies, the president, and the legislative branch to hear advocates for criminal justice reform and enact positive changes to the system. Moving Forward The nation's experiment with mass incarceration is being scrutinized and critiqued as never before, which brings criminal justice reform to the public policy agenda. Understanding today's public discourse-how Americans think, feel, and communicate about crime-must be the foundation for bringing about this paradigm shift going forward. Details: New York: Opportunity Agenda, 2014. 124p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 10, 2014 at: http://opportunityagenda.org/files/field_file/2014.08.23-CriminalJusticeReport-FINAL_0.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://opportunityagenda.org/files/field_file/2014.08.23-CriminalJusticeReport-FINAL_0.pdf Shelf Number: 134011 Keywords: Criminal Justice PolicyCriminal Justice Reform (U.S.)Mass CommunicationsPublic OpinionRacial JusticeRacial ProfilingSocial Media |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island Title: The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Black and White Summary: American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today issued a report calling on state and municipal leaders to examine policies, practices and procedures that lead to discriminatory treatment of black Rhode Islanders, from elementary school through adulthood. The ACLU report, titled "The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Black and White," offers a brief but systematic examination of racial disparities in Rhode Island, and how those interconnected disparities can lead to a lifetime of unequal treatment. The report, presented in a series of twelve charts, comes as the nation celebrates Black History Month, and grapples with recent events that have pushed racial disparity issues back into the forefront. Data has long shown that black Rhode Islanders are disproportionally suspended from school, stopped and searched by police, arrested, and incarcerated. When this data is compiled, as it is in today's report, it becomes clear that the disproportionate singling out, scrutinizing, and punishing of black Rhode Islanders is a persistent and far-reaching problem and one that contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline, a systematic pattern of pushing students, especially minorities, out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. The series of charts in today's report show how the disparate punishments doled out as early as elementary school lead to more black youth being swept up in the juvenile justice system where they face harsher punishment than their white counterparts. As adults, black Rhode Islanders are disproportionately stopped and searched by police, exacerbating disparities in arrest rates even when black and white individuals commit infractions at roughly the same rate. The end result of these racial disparities is a prison population that is disproportionately black. This racial disparity leaves the black community to bear the brunt of the socioeconomic consequences that follow incarceration, including lack of employment and denial of housing, perpetuating the cycle of unequal treatment. "Despite this growing body of evidence and consistent work by many to address these disparities, Rhode Island has lacked a comprehensive, strong response to resolve these issues. Worse, even as these disparities persist in the background, too many people still refuse to acknowledge their presence and the damaging effects that flow from them," the report stated. The ACLU urged the state and local leaders, particularly law enforcement agencies and school districts, to help stop the school-to-prison pipeline by regularly examining racial impact of their policies and procedures and developing plans to reduce any racial disparities. The ACLU also continues to support strong, comprehensive racial profiling legislation and legislation limiting the use of out-of-school suspensions. Details: Providence, RI: ACLU of Rhode Island, 2015. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 4, 2015 at: http://riaclu.org/images/uploads/School_to_Prison_Pipeline_in_Black_and_White_2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://riaclu.org/images/uploads/School_to_Prison_Pipeline_in_Black_and_White_2015.pdf Shelf Number: 134748 Keywords: Racial DiscriminationRacial ProfilingSchool Discipline (Rhode Island)School SuspensionZero Tolerance |
Author: U.S. Department of Justice. Civil Rights Division Title: Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department Summary: The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice opened its investigation of the Ferguson Police Department (FPD) on September 4, 2014. This investigation was initiated under the pattern-or-practice provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 42 U.S.C. - 14141, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. - 3789d (Safe Streets Act), and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. - 2000d (Title VI). This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law. Over the course of the investigation, we interviewed City officials, including City Manager John Shaw, Mayor James Knowles, Chief of Police Thomas Jackson, Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, the Municipal Court Clerk, Ferguson's Finance Director, half of FPD's sworn officers, and others. We spent, collectively, approximately 100 person-days onsite in Ferguson. We participated in ride-alongs with on-duty officers, reviewed over 35,000 pages of police records as well as thousands of emails and other electronic materials provided by the police department. Enlisting the assistance of statistical experts, we analyzed FPD's data on stops, searches, citations, and arrests, as well as data collected by the municipal court. We observed four separate sessions of Ferguson Municipal Court, interviewing dozens of people charged with local offenses, and we reviewed third-party studies regarding municipal court practices in Ferguson and St. Louis County more broadly. As in all of our investigations, we sought to engage the local community, conducting hundreds of in-person and telephone interviews of individuals who reside in Ferguson or who have had interactions with the police department. We contacted ten neighborhood associations and met with each group that responded to us, as well as several other community groups and advocacy organizations. Throughout the investigation, we relied on two police chiefs who accompanied us to Ferguson and who themselves interviewed City and police officials, spoke with community members, and reviewed FPD policies and incident reports. Ferguson's law enforcement practices are shaped by the City's focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson's police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community. Further, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes. Ferguson's own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans. The evidence shows that discriminatory intent is part of the reason for these disparities. Over time, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices have sown deep mistrust between parts of the community and the police department, undermining law enforcement legitimacy among African Americans in particular. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2015. 105p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2015 at: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf Shelf Number: 134756 Keywords: BiasDiscriminationPolice MisconductPolice Use of Force (Missouri)Racial DisparitiesRacial Profiling |
Author: Armacost, Barbara E. Title: Immigration Policing: Federalizing the Local Summary: Recent immigration scholarship has identified two features of current immigration enforcement: the "federalization" of immigration law - meaning the growing participation of state and local police in immigration enforcement - and "crimmigration" - the increasing use of immigration law as a strategy for crime control. Scholars argue that these trends are new and that they have had a negative effect on immigration regulation. By contrast, supporters of state and local immigration enforcement point out that police officers can serve as a powerful "force multiplier" by funneling the highest priority illegal aliens - criminal aliens - into the federal immigration system. They argue that this won't change the shape of ordinary law enforcement. Neither side is correct. On the one hand, neither of these features is particularly new. For decades, federal immigration officials have been partnering with state and local officials and for nearly 100 years federal law has provided for deportation based on conviction of certain crimes. What is new is that enhanced funding and expanded programing has enlarged the scope of state and local participation and thrust it into public view. On the other hand, proponents of state and local police as "force multipliers" underestimate the extent to which this increased participation distorts both federal immigration enforcement policy and state and local law enforcement policy. These distortions result primarily from one salient feature of the merged system: the fact that state and local police involved in immigration enforcement make front-end law enforcement decisions in light of the promise of back-end immigration enforcement. This has led to the use of pre-textual stops and arrests ostensibly for traffic violations or minor crimes but actually for the purpose of feeding suspected illegal aliens into the immigration enforcement system. This article demonstrates how pre-textual enforcement actions distort federal and state/local enforcement priorities and undermine political accountability. They also lead, almost inevitably, to racial profiling that is largely impervious to legal and constitutional challenge. Assuming, as I do, that immigration policing and crimmigration are here to stay, the challenge is to harness the "force multiplier" of state and local enforcement without creating the dysfunction that can accompany it. The key is to find ways to decouple state and local law enforcement decisions from the promise of immigration enforcement. This article identifies some promising responses in this direction by ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies. While these early efforts are inadequate, they may point the way forward in a world in which immigration federalism and crimmigration are here to stay. Details: Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia School of Law, 2014. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2014-60 : Accessed March 19, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2504042 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2504042 Shelf Number: 134978 Keywords: Border ControlCrimmigrationImmigrantsImmigration Enforcement (U.S.)PolicingRacial Profiling |
Author: Dolan, Karen Title: The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty Summary: Poor people, especially people of color, face a far greater risk of being fined, arrested, and even incarcerated for minor offenses than other Americans. A broken taillight, an unpaid parking ticket, a minor drug offense, sitting on a sidewalk, or sleeping in a park can all result in jail time. In this report, we seek to understand the multi-faceted, growing phenomenon of the "criminalization of poverty." In many ways, this phenomenon is not new: The introduction of public assistance programs gave rise to prejudices against beneficiaries and to systemic efforts to obstruct access to the assistance. This form of criminalizing poverty - racial profiling or the targeting of poor black and Latina single mothers trying to access public assistance - is a relatively familiar reality. Less well-known known are the new and growing trends which increase this criminalization of being poor that affect or will affect hundreds of millions of Americans. These troubling trends are eliminating their chances to get out of poverty and access resources that make a safe and decent life possible. In this report we will summarize these realities, filling out the true breadth and depth of this national crisis. The key elements we examine are: - the targeting of poor people with fines and fees for misdemeanors, and the resurgence of debtors' prisons (the imprisonment of people unable to pay debts resulting from the increase in fines and fees); - mass incarceration of poor ethnic minorities for non-violent offenses, and the barriers to employment and re-entry into society once they have served their sentences; - excessive punishment of poor children that creates a "school-to-prison pipeline"; - increase in arrests of homeless people and people feeding the homeless, and criminalizing life-sustaining activities such as sleeping in public when no shelter is available; and - confiscating what little resources and property poor people might have through "civil asset forfeiture." Details: Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies, 2015. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2015 at: http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IPS-The-Poor-Get-Prison-Final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IPS-The-Poor-Get-Prison-Final.pdf Shelf Number: 135148 Keywords: Disproportionate Minority ContactPoverty (U.S.)Racial DisparitiesRacial Profiling |
Author: Dolan, Karen Title: The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty Summary: Poor people, especially people of color, face a far greater risk of being fined, arrested, and even incarcerated for minor offenses than other Americans. A broken taillight, an unpaid parking ticket, a minor drug offense, sitting on a sidewalk, or sleeping in a park can all result in jail time. In this report, we seek to understand the multi-faceted, growing phenomenon of the "criminalization of poverty." In many ways, this phenomenon is not new. The introduction of public assistance programs gave rise to prejudices against beneficiaries and to systemic efforts to obstruct access to the assistance. As University of California-Irvine professor Kaaryn Gustafson has noted, the intersections of race, income and gender bias were at play in the 1960s and 1970s as black, single mothers were targeted as criminal, lazy, promiscuous welfare cheats.1 The 1980s saw this demographic become the emblem of all that is wrong with government assistance for the poor - the infamous Welfare Queen. Black, single mothers were fictionalized as criminally defrauding the taxpayer, taking in public assistance while driving Cadillacs, eating bon-bons, and presumably getting rich off of drug-dealing boyfriends. Thus the 1990s brought aggressive state attacks on welfare recipients as they were increasingly investigated for fraud and other suspected criminal activities. The welfare system became a system of criminalization and punishment, rather than a program to assist needy families. So-called welfare reform, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, ended federal cash aid programs and replaced them with time-limited, restrictive, state block-grants. New punishable behaviors were mandated and policed, all but erasing the already tenuous line between the welfare and criminal justice systems. Today, when applying for welfare in the United States, many applicants are photographed, finger-printed, drug-tested, interrogated, and asked to prove paternity of children. Similarly, eligibility for public housing is restricted or denied if the applicant has a criminal record, including misdemeanors or a prior lease violation. Further, local Public Housing Authorities can be even more restrictive and evict occupants if a member of their family or another person residing in - or in some cases visiting - commits a crime, such as a misdemeanor drug offense. Poverty, in other words, is too often treated as a criminal offense. Details: Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies, 2015. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 4, 2015 at: http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IPS-The-Poor-Get-Prison-Final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IPS-The-Poor-Get-Prison-Final.pdf Shelf Number: 135492 Keywords: Poverty (U.S.)Racial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingSocioeconomic StatusWelfare |
Author: Fagan, Jeffrey Title: Stops and Stares: Street Stops, Surveillance and Race in the New Policing Summary: The use of proactive tactics to disrupt criminal activities, such as Terry street stops and concentrated misdemeanor arrests, are essential to the "new policing." This model applies complex metrics, strong management, and aggressive enforcement and surveillance to focus policing on high crime risk persons and places. The tactics endemic to the "new policing" gave rise in the 1990s to popular, legal, political and social science concerns about disparate treatment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. Empirical evidence showed that minorities were indeed stopped and arrested more frequently than similarly situated whites, even when controlling for local social and crime conditions. In this article, we examine racial disparities under a unique configuration of the street stop prong of the "new policing" - the inclusion of non-contact observations (or surveillances) in the field interrogation (or investigative stop) activity of Boston Police Department officers. We show that Boston Police officers focus significant portions of their field investigation activity in two areas: suspected and actual gang members, and the city's high crime areas. Minority neighborhoods experience higher levels of field interrogation and surveillance activity net of crime and other social factors. Relative to white suspects, Black suspects are more likely to be observed, interrogated, and frisked or searched controlling for gang membership and prior arrest history. Moreover, relative to their black counterparts, white police officers conduct high numbers of field investigations and are more likely to frisk/search subjects of all races. We distinguish between preference-based and statistical discrimination by comparing stops by officer-suspect racial pairs. If officer activity is independent of officer race, we would infer that disproportionate stops of minorities reflect statistical discrimination. We show instead that officers seem more likely to investigate and frisk or search a minority suspect if officer and suspect race differ. We locate these results in the broader tensions of racial profiling that pose recurring social and constitutional concerns in the "new policing." Details: New York: Columbia Law School, Public Law & Legal Theory Working Paper Group, 2015. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: Columbia Public Law Research Paper No. 14-479 : Accessed September 5, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2650154 Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2650154 Shelf Number: 136685 Keywords: Racial DiscriminationRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchSurveillance |
Author: El-Enany, Nadine Title: Justice, Resistance and Solidarity: Race and Policing in England and Wales Summary: This edition of Perspectives focuses on racism and policing in Britain. It brings together academics, practitioners and activists to examine, and offer their outlook on, the state of policing and its effects on black and minority ethnic communities in Britain today. In recent years the US has been in the spotlight for police killings of black men and women, including the 2014 killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Tanisha Anderson in Cleveland, Ohio, and Eric Garner in New York, as well as the protest movements which have followed. Britain is no stranger to racialised police violence. Following these and other fatal police shootings, solidarity protests with the "BlackLivesMatter" movement drew attention to the long list of unaccounted-for deaths of black men and women in Britain. Systemic and institutional racism persists in policing despite its recognition in the Macpherson Report more than fifteen years ago. In Britain, black and minority ethnic people are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system at every level, from arrests to stop and search, to imprisonment, to deaths in custody. Successive governments' counter-terrorism policies have resulted in racial profiling and over-policing of Muslim and Asian communities, and have fed a pervasive Islamophobia now affecting British and other European societies. Contributors to this collection have tackled these issues head on from multiple perspectives, incorporating the voices of those affected by racialised policing and those who campaign on their behalf, together with scholars in the field. Each of their short contributions seeks to provoke critical reflection and forward-thinking on key issues where race and policing intersect. The collection is organised into three parts. The first, Taking Stock - The State of Policing, sets out the key contemporary issues in race and policing within a historical context. The second part, Racism and Counter-Terrorism, examines the racial and religious profiling that is at the heart of counter-terror policing in Britain and examines the impact this is having on Asian and Muslim communities in particular. The final part, Considering a Way Forward, brings together accounts from grassroots and community organisations of their experiences and strategies when taking up the challenge of scrutinising and seeking accountability for police actions. Included in this part are comparative perspectives on practice and policy from across Europe. Details: London: Runnymede, 2015. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Runnymede Perspectives: Accessed November 28, 2015 at: http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Race%20and%20Policing%20v4.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Race%20and%20Policing%20v4.pdf Shelf Number: 137350 Keywords: Minority CommunitiesPolice AccountabilityPolice ReformPolicingRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in PolicingRacismTerrorism |
Author: Redfield, Sarah E. Title: School-To-Prison Pipeline: Preliminary Report Summary: In 2014, the American Bar Association (ABA) Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice (COREJ) turned its attention to the continuing failures in the education system where certain groups of students - for example, students of color, with disabilities, or LGBTQ - are disproportionately over- or incorrectly categorized in special education, are disciplined more harshly, including referral to law enforcement for minimal misbehavior, achieve at lower levels, and eventually drop or are pushed out of school, often into juvenile justice facilities and prisons - a pattern now commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline (StPP). While this problem certainly is not new, it presented a convergence of several laws, policies, and practices where the legal community's intervention is critical. Joined by the ABA Pipeline Council and Criminal Justice Section, and supported by its sister ABA entities, COREJ sponsored a series of eight Town Halls across the country to investigate the issues surrounding this pipeline. The focus of these Town Halls was to 1) explore the issues as they presented themselves for various groups and various locales; 2) gather testimony on solutions that showed success, with particular focus on interventions where the legal community could be most effective in interrupting and reversing the StPP; and 3) draw attention to the role implicit bias plays in creating and maintaining this pipeline. This report is a result of those convenings. Also a result was the formation of a Joint Task Force among the three convening entities to provide an organizational structure to address Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline (RStPP) To analyze the complexities surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline and identify potential solutions to reverse these negative trends, the Joint RStPP Task Force: 1. Organized and conducted eight Town Hall meetings in various parts of the United States during which several area experts and community members voiced concerns, discussed the problems, and proposed solutions. 2. Analyzed and cumulated national data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection and other available local data to gauge the magnitude and scope of the problems. 3. Served as a clearinghouse for information and reports relevant to the RStPP effort and disseminated that information. 4. Examined national and state laws and local school district's policies and practices that have combined to push an increasing number of students out of school and into the justice system. 5. Analyzed laws that several states have enacted to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline. 6. Evaluated evidence-based policies and practices that various schools have implemented to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline. 7. Organized and conducted a roundtable discussion to focus exclusively on mapping out solutions to reverse these negative trends by identifying model programs and successful strategies. 8. Planned for two additional Town Halls focused on LGBTQ (San Diego) and entry points to the pipeline and juvenile justice (Memphis). 9. Drafted this preliminary report and prepared recommendations for consideration by the larger ABA. Details: Chicago: American Bar Association, Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, 2016. 167p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2016 at: http://jjie.org/files/2016/02/School-to-Prison-Pipeline-Preliminary-Report-Complete-Final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://jjie.org/files/2016/02/School-to-Prison-Pipeline-Preliminary-Report-Complete-Final.pdf Shelf Number: 137937 Keywords: Racial DiscriminationRacial DisparitiesRacial Profiling School DisciplineSchool Suspension School-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance |
Author: Taniguchi, Travis A. Title: A test of racial disproportionality in traffic stops conducted by the Raleigh Police Department Summary: Recent research has raised questions regarding the Raleigh Police Department's (RPD) use of race as a proxy for criminal behavior. News reports going back to 2000 make claims of racial bias based on the disparity between the racial composition of stopped motorists and the racial composition of the city (Associated Press, 2000). Critically, these kinds of analyses typically use census population estimates to establish a benchmark for the driving population. Census estimates, however, demonstrate only where people reside and serve as a poor proxy for the actual driving population. Therefore, census population cannot accurately measure the population at risk (i.e., the driving population that is likely to be involved in a traffic stop). RTI International conducted a series of analyses to address this methodological limitation. This research was funded internally by RTI to serve the community and to contribute to a growing body of scientific research on this topic. Details: Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2016. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2016 at: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_raleigh_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_raleigh_final.pdf Shelf Number: 138322 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchTraffic Stops |
Author: Taniguchi, Travis A. Title: Exploring racial disproportionality in traffic stops conducted by the Durham Police Department Summary: Recent research has generated questions regarding the Durham Police Department's (DPD) use of race as a proxy for criminal behavior. For example, Baumgartner and Epp's (2012) analysis of DPD traffic stop data suggested racial bias in traffic enforcement. Critically, Baumgartner and Epp used census population estimates to establish a benchmark for the driving population. Census estimates, however, demonstrate only where people reside and therefore serve as a poor proxy for the actual driving population. The DPD, in an effort to promote transparency and achieve an improved understanding of its operations and their impact on the community, provided RTI International with access to 6 years of traffic stop data. In turn, RTI proposed a series of analyses that would address the methodological limitations noted above. This research was funded internally by RTI to serve the community and to contribute to a growing body of scientific research on this topic. The study was conducted independently, and the DPD provided no financial support for the project. Details: Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2016. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2016 at: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_durham_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_durham_final.pdf Shelf Number: 138323 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Stop and Search Traffic Stops |
Author: Taniguchi, Travis A. Title: A test of racial disproportionality in traffic stops conducted by the Fayetteville Police Department Summary: Recent research has generated questions regarding the Fayetteville Police Department's (FPD) use of race as a proxy for criminal behavior. A recent New York Times article highlighted the racial disproportionality in traffic stops in both Greensboro and Fayetteville (LaFraniere & Lehren, 2015). Critically, these kinds of analyses typically use census population estimates to establish a benchmark for the driving population. Census estimates, however, demonstrate only where people reside and serve as a poor proxy for the actual driving population. Therefore, census population cannot accurately measure the population at risk (i.e., the driving population that is likely to be involved in a traffic stop). RTI International conducted a series of analyses to address this methodological limitation. This research was funded internally by RTI to serve the community and to contribute to a growing body of scientific research on this topic. Details: Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2016. 5p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2016 at: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_fayetteville_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_fayetteville_final.pdf Shelf Number: 138324 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Stop and Search Traffic Stops |
Author: Taniguchi, Travis A. Title: A test of racial disproportionality in traffic stops conducted by the Greensboro Police Department Summary: Recent research has generated questions regarding the Greensboro Police Department's (GPD) use of race as a proxy for criminal behavior. For example, a recent New York Times article highlighted the racial disproportionality in traffic stops in Greensboro (LaFraniere & Lehren, 2015). Critically, these kinds of analyses typically use census population estimates to establish a benchmark for the driving population. Census estimates, however, demonstrate only where people reside and serve as a poor proxy for the actual driving population. Therefore, census population cannot accurately measure the population at risk (i.e., the driving population that is likely to be involved in a traffic stop). RTI International conducted a series of analyses to address this methodological limitation. This research was funded internally by RTI to serve the community and to contribute to a growing body of scientific research on this topic. Details: Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2016. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2016 at: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_greensboro_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.rti.org/pubs/vod_greensboro_final.pdf Shelf Number: 138325 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Stop and Search Traffic Stops |
Author: East Bay Community Law Center Title: Stopped, Fined, Arrested: Racial Bias in Policing and Traffic Courts in California Summary: Across the country, low-income people who commit minor offenses are saddled with fines, fees and penalties that pile up, driving them deeper into poverty. What's worse, they are arrested and jailed for nonpayment, increasing the risk of losing their jobs or their homes. Stopped, Fined, Arrested - Racial Bias in Policing and Traffic Courts in California brings to light a disturbing truth that remains ever present in the lives of Californians: there are dramatic racial and socioeconomic disparities in driver's license suspensions and arrests related to unpaid traffic fines and fees. Public records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and U.S. Census data demonstrate that in primarily Black and Latino communities, driver's license suspension rates range as high as five times the state average. Moreover, data collected from 15 police and sheriff's departments across California show that Black motorists are far more likely to be arrested for driving with a suspended license for failure to pay an infraction citation than White motorists. Never before has this volume of data been available for the public to analyze. This new data and interactive maps show: - Rates of driver's license suspensions due to a failure to appear or pay a ticket are directly correlated with poverty indicators and with race. The highest suspension rates are found in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and high percentages of Black or Latino residents. - The Bay View/Hunter's Point neighborhood in San Francisco, zip code 94124, has a relatively high rate of poverty (23.5%), the highest percentage of Black residents in San Francisco (35.8%) and a suspension rate of 6.7%, more than three times the state average. Neighboring zip code 94123, which includes the Marina District, has a substantially lower poverty rate (5.9%), a low percentage of Black residents (1.5%) and a suspension rate five times below the state average (0.4%.). - Black and Latino motorists are disproportionately arrested for driving with a suspended license and for warrants for failure to appear or pay on an infraction citation. - In the City and County of San Francisco, the population is 5.8% Black, yet 48.7% of arrests for a "failure to appear/pay" traffic court warrant are of Black drivers (over-represented by 8.4x). White people are 41.2% of San Francisco's residents, yet only 22.7% of those arrested for driving with a suspended license (underrepresented by 0.6x). - In Los Angeles County, Black people are 9.2% of the population yet 33% of those arrested for driving with a suspended license (over-represented by 3.6x). White people are 26.8% of the county's residents, yet only 14.8% of those arrested for driving with a suspended license (under-represented by 0.6x). Stopped, Fined, Arrested situates license suspensions and arrests in the broader context of systemic racial bias in policing and courts, and builds upon the findings of our first report, which showed the harsher impacts that low-income people face in California's "pay-to-play" justice system. Stopped, Fined, Arrested also highlights the immediate and long-lasting detrimental impacts of these current policies and practices on California's residents, families, communities, economy and public trust in law enforcement and the courts. From income and job loss to reduced health, psychological harm and family separation, arrests and incarceration due to unpaid infraction debt carries significant collateral consequences that burden California's economy and judicial system while doing very little to further public safety or the interests of justice. Over-policing, license suspensions and the subsequent arrests due to inability to pay come at a great cost to our state's resources, to public safety, to the fair administration of justice and, as this report documents, to people and communities across the state. These great costs demand comprehensive changes to California's court system and policing policies. Details: s.l.: East Bay Community Law Center, Bank on the Road, 2016. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 14, 2016 at: http://ebclc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Stopped_Fined_Arrested_BOTRCA.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://ebclc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Stopped_Fined_Arrested_BOTRCA.pdf Shelf Number: 138682 Keywords: Police DiscretionRacial BiasRacial DiscriminationRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementTraffic Offenses |
Author: Denbeaux, Mark P. Title: Racial Profiling Report: Bloomfield Police and Bloomfield Municipal Court Summary: Seton Hall Law School's Center for Policy & Research selected Bloomfield, New Jersey as a setting for a study of potential racial profiling in its police practices. The results revealed a persistent and disproportionate representation of African Americans and Latinos in the courtroom as compared to their representation in either Bloomfield itself or in the State of New Jersey. Bloomfield, New Jersey is, in many ways, demographically representative of New Jersey itself. According to the most recent census data available, its population of 47,315 is roughly 60% white, 18.5% African American, and 24.5% Latino. In comparison, New Jersey's population is 68.6% white, 13.7% African American, and 17.7% Latino. Bloomfield is ringed on the north, east and west by towns that resemble its demographic makeup. Bloomfield's southern border, however, is a different story: Newark is 26.3% white, 52.3% African American and 33.8% Latino; East Orange is 4% white, 88.5% African American and 7.9% Latino. The study entailed hundreds of observations of court appearances for traffic offenses and a small number of other minor offenses in Bloomfield Municipal Court, conducted by a team of trained Seton Hall Law School students for 70 hours over the course of a month. Students also scrutinized a database of 9,715 tickets issued to unique drivers in Bloomfield during a 12-month period immediately preceding the courtroom observations. The individuals with Spanish surnames who were cited in the Bloomfield ticket database closely approximated the Latino percentage observed in court appearances. Given the demographics of both Bloomfield and New Jersey generally, the expected representation in the courtroom would have been around 60% white. Strikingly, the observers reported the inverse, plus: instead of 60% white, African-Americans and Latinos accounted for an astounding 78% of court appearances (43% African American, 35% Latino, 20% White, and 2% other) (n=799). Remarkably, this racial disproportion was found not only across the board but in various subgroupings - including Bloomfield itself whose African American and Latino residents accounted for 73% of Bloomfield residents observed before the court, as compared with only 24% white. Similarly, a racial disproportion in ticketing also existed across the five predominantly white border towns. Although the numbers are small (n=39), 64% of those with residences in the predominantly white border towns were African American or Latino while only 33% were white. Much of the explanation for the racial distribution of tickets is undoubtedly due to the issuance of citations to residents of the cities of Newark and East Orange. The borders of these cities with Bloomfield were overwhelmingly targeted by the Bloomfield Police. To determine areas of police targeting, the database of tickets from the year immediately prior to the observation aspect of the study, was also analyzed for patrolling patterns. Where it could be determined where the traffic stop occurred (which was in some 67% of the cases), the overwhelming majority -- 88.33% -- were in the third of Bloomfield nearest to Newark and East Orange. Added to the courtroom observation data showing a greatly disproportionate number of tickets issued to African Americans and Latinos (78%), this pattern of citations compels the conclusion that African Americans and Latinos are, collectively, Bloomfield Police's target group. Indeed, Bloomfield Police policing patterns suggest a de facto "border patrol." By plotting out ticket incidence and frequency, one can see what essentially amounts to a "wall" of police erected against the Newark and East Orange border areas and their predominantly African American and Latino residents. This pattern of police citations also resulted in a dramatic subsidy of Bloomfield by African American and Latinos, in large part from residents of Newark and East Orange. For each individual charged, the average cost was $137 plus any surcharges imposed. That suggests that, for African Americans and Latinos, as a group, 7,566 tickets and a total paid to Bloomfield Municipal Court of more than $1,000,000. From the residents of East Orange and Newark who, at 29% of the observed total, received 2,910 tickets, Bloomfield Municipal Court would have received nearly $400,000. The annual budget of the Court is about $500,000, suggesting a substantial "profit" from this pattern of law enforcement, most of it from nonresidents of Bloomfield, and heavily weighted on the backs of African Americans and Latinos as a group. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Municipal Court's budgeted salaries were projected to have more than doubled in 2015, from $350,600 in 2014 to an estimated $760,794 in 2015. Details: Newark, NJ: Seton Hall University School of Law, Center for Policy and Research, 2016. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2016 at: Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 138701 Keywords: Bias Racial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementRacismTraffic Stops |
Author: Simoiu, Camelia Title: Testing for Racial Discrimination in Police Searches of Motor Vehicles Summary: In the course of conducting traffic stops, officers have discretion to search motorists for drugs, weapons, and other contraband. There is concern that these search decisions are prone to racial bias, but it has proven difficult to rigorously assess claims of discrimination. Here we develop a new statistical method-the threshold test-to test for racial discrimination in motor vehicle searches. We use geographic variation in stop outcomes to infer the e↵ective race-specific standards of evidence that officers apply when deciding whom to search, an approach we formalize with a hierarchical Bayesian latent variable model. This technique mitigates the problems of omitted variables and infra-marginality associated with benchmark and outcome tests for discrimination. On a dataset of 4.5 million police stops in North Carolina, we find that the standard for searching black and Hispanic drivers is considerably lower than the standard for searching white and Asian drivers, a pattern that holds consistently across the 100 largest police departments in the state. Details: Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 30, 2016 at: https://5harad.com/papers/threshold-test.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://5harad.com/papers/threshold-test.pdf Shelf Number: 140099 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchTraffic Stops |
Author: Emsellem, Maurice Title: Racial Profiling in Hiring: A Critique of New Summary: Two recent studies claim that "ban the box" policies enacted around the country detrimentally affect the employment of young men of color who do not have a conviction record. One of the authors has boldly argued that the policy should be abandoned outright because it "does more harm than good." It's the wrong conclusion. The nation cannot afford to turn back the clock on a decade of reform that has created significant job opportunities for people with records. These studies require exacting scrutiny to ensure that they are not irresponsibly seized upon at a critical time when the nation is being challenged to confront its painful legacy of structural discrimination and criminalization of people of color. Our review of the studies leads us to these top-line conclusions: (1) The core problem raised by the studies is not ban-the-box but entrenched racism in the hiring process, which manifests as racial profiling of African Americans as "criminals." (2) Ban-the-box is working, both by increasing employment opportunities for people with records and by changing employer attitudes toward hiring people with records. (3) When closely scrutinized, the new studies do not support the conclusion that ban-the-box policies are responsible for the depressed hiring of African Americans. (4) The studies highlight the need for a more robust policy response to both boost job opportunities for people with records and tackle race discrimination in the hiring process -not a repeal of ban-the-box laws. Details: New York: National Employment Law Project, 2016. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief: Accessed September 16, 2016 at: http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/Policy-Brief-Racial-Profiling-in-Hiring-Critique-New-Ban-the-Box-Studies.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/Policy-Brief-Racial-Profiling-in-Hiring-Critique-New-Ban-the-Box-Studies.pdf Shelf Number: 140317 Keywords: Ban the BoxCriminal RecordsDiscriminationEx-offender EmploymentRacial Profiling |
Author: Carbado, Devon W. Title: From Stopping Black People to Killing Black People: The Fourth Amendment Pathways to Police Violence Summary: 2014 to 2016 likely will go down as a significant if not watershed moment in the history of U.S. race relations. Police killing of African Americans has engendered further conversations about race and policing. Yet, in most of the discussions about these tragic deaths, little attention has been paid to a significant dimension of the police violence problem: the legalization of racial profiling in Fourth Amendment law. This legalization of racial profiling is not a sideline or peripheral feature of Fourth Amendment law. It is embedded in the analytical structure of the doctrine in ways that enable police officers to force engagements with African Americans with little or no basis. The frequency of these engagements exposes African Americans not only to the violence of ongoing police surveillance, contact, and social control but also to the violence of serious bodily injury and death. Which is to say, Fourth Amendment law facilitates the space between stopping black people and killing black people. This Article demonstrates precisely how by employing a series of hypotheticals to reveal the ways in which the extraordinary violence police officers often use against Africans Americans can grow out of the ordinary police interactions Fourth Amendment law empowers police officers to stage. Details: Los Angeles: UCLA School of Law, 2016. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 16-41 : Accessed October 6, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2844312 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2844312 Shelf Number: 147823 Keywords: African AmericansDeadly ForceFourth AmendmentPolice Use of ForceRacial Profiling |
Author: Baumgartner, Frank R. Title: Racial Disparities in Traffic Stop Outcomes Summary: In American politics, the issue of racial disparity is never far from the surface, in particular as it relates to encounters with the police. We are currently in a period when – thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement – the behavior of police officers toward minorities is receiving intense scrutiny. As usual, Americans are deeply divided on the issue: where one side perceives injustice and violence toward black bodies, the other focuses on the difficulties of law enforcement and the need to respect those in blue. Our current focus on race and justice is all too familiar, but this most recent surge in attention to these issues offers perhaps a special promise of progress because our abilities to document citizen interactions with police have never been better. First, almost everyone today has a video camera on their cell phone, allowing them to film their interactions with police officers. It is much harder to dismiss a victim's claims of police misconduct when footage of the incident is posted on Facebook for the world to see. Second, increasing numbers of police departments are mandating the use of dash cameras and body cameras for police cars and police officers. Third, we now have access to extensive databases of police traffic stops that record the demographic information of stopped motorists alongside information about what transpired during the stop. Efforts to collect this type of data were put in place during the last wave of attention toward "driving while black" disparities in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Figure 1 shows the surge of attention as well as its later decline. During the time when attention to the concept of "driving while black" or "driving while brown" surged, a number of states passed laws for the first time mandating the collection of data on routine traffic stops. They sought to document any racial disparities that were alleged to be occurring so that the phenomenon could be either dismissed, if the data revealed there was no such thing, or better understood so that solutions could be implemented if the data showed that allegations were indeed accurate. The figure shows that attention has declined, but a new wave of attention to police violence, based on shootings of unarmed black men has of course kept police-minority relations in the headlines. One major difference between the 1990s and today was mentioned above: video confirmation. Another is data, which is our focus here. Details: Chapel Hill, NC: Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 2, 2017 at: https://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/BaumgartnerEtAl-2017-DukeForum-RacialDisparitiesInTrafficStops.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/BaumgartnerEtAl-2017-DukeForum-RacialDisparitiesInTrafficStops.pdf Shelf Number: 141302 Keywords: Body-Worn CamerasRacial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchTraffic Stops |
Author: Gideon's Army Title: Driving While Black: A report on racial profiling in Metro Nashville Police Department Traffic Stops Summary: Our report shows that "driving while black" constitutes a unique series of risks, vulnerabilities, and dangers at the hands of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that white drivers do not experience in the same way. Upon reviewing MNPD’s traffic stop database, our report finds that: • Between 2011-2015, MNPD conducted 7.7 times more traffic stops annually than the U.S. national average • Between 2011-2015, MNPD made more stops of black people than there were black people 16 years old and over living in Davidson County • Between 2011-2015, MNPD consistently and unnecessarily stopped and searched black drivers in predominantly black, Hispanic, and low-income communities at rates substantially higher than they did white drivers in predominantly middle to upper income communities • MNPD consent searches are invasive and fail to yield incriminating evidence 88.4% of the time. • Evidence of unlawful activity is found during searches of white drivers more often than in searches of black and Hispanic drivers • Nearly 80% of all MNPD traffic stops in 2015 result in a warning, and, in traffic stops including a search of the vehicle or driver, between one-third and half result in a warning, which means hundreds of thousands of drivers are being stopped and searched unnecessarily every year • Since 2012, Operation Safer Streets (OSS) has resulted in more than 58,000 vehicle stops and 11,000 arrests, the vast majority of which were concentrated in communities of color. More than 90% of OSS arrests were for misdemeanors, often for possession of small amounts of marijuana or driving without a license, and more than 80% of stops yielded no evidence that warranted arrest. Our interviews with black drivers in Nashville show that: • Metro police officers regularly intimidate, harass, and unfairly exert their authority over black drivers • Aggressive tactics by officers result in traumatizing experiences of fear for one’s safety and the safety of one’s family and friends • Black drivers experience anger at being treated unjustly and disrespectfully, frustration derived from being profiled because of one's race and its assumed correspondence to criminality, and the feeling that police do not "serve and protect" black people like they do white people Through these findings, our report shows that MNPD's traffic stop practices impose a severe disparate or discriminatory impact on the predominantly black and low-income communities that MNPD’s traffic stop and search regime disproportionately targets. MNPD's internal reports justify these disparities based on an alleged correlation between where stops are made and the number of crime reports in the area. However, our findings show that traffic enforcement targets and impacts entire communities, not just people who commit crimes, and that regardless of the area, black people are searched at much higher rates than white people. For these reasons, racial disparities in policing are unlikely to be caused by individual officers’ behaviors alone, but by institutional norms and policies that justify targeting predominantly black and low-income communities. The MNPD traffic stop lesson plan used as part of officer training shows that the department is primarily focused on using traffic stops as a way to gain entry into vehicles and search them (See Section II). In practice, this means making pretextual traffic stops for technicalities, such as rolling through a stop sign or having a broken taillight, in order to get an opportunity to make contact with the occupants, use manipulative forms of engagement to gain consent to search, and search drivers and their vehicles. While the lesson plan does not explicitly prioritize stops and searches of black drivers, MNPD disproportionately deploys its patrol officers to predominantly black and low-income communities, and as our report shows, black drivers are more likely than white drivers to be stopped, stopped multiple times in a year, and searched during a traffic stop, even though searches of black drivers are less successful in yielding criminal evidence than are searches of white drivers. MNPD's overwhelmingly unsuccessful and disparately impactful over-policing of predominantly black and low-income communities raises serious concerns about the effectiveness, legitimacy, and constitutionality of MNPD's traffic stop and search regime. Furthermore, the fact that Nashville's unnecessarily high rate of total traffic stops does not reduce traffic accidents and injuries (Finding 1) and does not appear to make any significant impact on crime rates compared to other cities making fewer stops (Demand 1) calls MNPD's policing strategies into question both legally and ethically. The core findings of our report analyze traffic stops of black, white, and Hispanic drivers. Details: Nashville, TN: Gideon's Army, 2016. 213p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 23, 2017 at: https://drivingwhileblacknashville.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/driving-while-black-gideons-army.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://drivingwhileblacknashville.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/driving-while-black-gideons-army.pdf Shelf Number: 144558 Keywords: Driving While BlackRacial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchTraffic StopsTraffic Violations |
Author: Keeling, Peter Title: No respect: Young BAME men, the police and stop and search Summary: exactly 30 years after the Brixton riots, history repeated itself in the summer of 2011 in cities across Britain. Once again, one accelerant to that unrest was a perception among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young people that they were being unfairly treated by police forces using stop and search. Public figures, including - commendably - the then Home Secretary, pledged action. In the subsequent five years the number of stop and searches effected in England and Wales fell from 1.2 million to 380,000 without any deleterious impact on levels of crime. However, shockingly, the likelihood of someone black being stopped and searched in that period actually rose in relation to white people. A black person is now six times more likely to be searched. Meeting young BAME people engaged through some of the Criminal Justice Alliance's 120 member organisations made clear how toxic this discrepancy, which corrodes their self-esteem, is to good community relations. Too many of them feel a visceral hostility towards police as a consequence. What's most stark is that too many are so obviously also becoming alienated from public institutions meant to protect them at the very point of their transition to adulthood. That's why we decided to listen to what young BAME people had to tell policymakers and those police forces genuinely wrestling with this problem. Much of it, as the recommendations outlined here indicate, was constructive and thoughtful. We also resolved to test whether the views we were hearing were representative of the two million young BAME people in England and Wales, each of them a key part of twenty-first century Britain's future. Polling has confirmed, worryingly, that they were. Almost 1.5 million young BAME people, for example, believe police stop and search powers are currently used unfairly toward their communities. We inhabit a country where it's becoming a truth universally acknowledged that politicians, policymakers and those who lead our public services don't listen enough to those they serve. We hope that all of them - including Police & Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables - will not just listen to the two million young people to whom this report gives voice. We hope they'll now act, and ensure that history does not repeat itself again. Details: London: Barrow Cadbury Trust, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 27, 2017 at: https://www.barrowcadbury.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/No-Respect-CJA-June-2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.barrowcadbury.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/No-Respect-CJA-June-2017.pdf Shelf Number: 146586 Keywords: MinoritiesRacial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and Search |
Author: New York State. Office of the Attorney General Title: A Report on Arrests Arising from the New York City Police Department's Stop-and-Frisk Practices Summary: The stop-and-frisk practice of the New York City Police Department ("NYPD") has been the subject of significant public debate and litigation. Much of the discourse has focused on the practice's constitutionality and its impact on African-American, Latino, and other minority communities. A federal court decision, Floyd v. City of New York, declared stop and frisk unconstitutional as practiced in New York City. That decision has been stayed and is now on appeal to the Second Circuit. Neither the appeal nor the lower court decision, however, addresses the effectiveness of stop and frisk in combating crime. Supporters and opponents of the practice agree that only 6% of all stops result in an arrest. Yet until now, no known study has sought to assess what happens following those arrests. By analyzing close to 150,000 SQF arrests from 2009 through 2012 (out of the approximately 2.4 million stops conducted during those years), this report offers new data on the outcomes of the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practice. The report's key findings include the following: Close to half of all SQF arrests did not result in a conviction; Fewer than one in four SQF arrests - or 1.5% of all stops-resulted in a jail or prison sentence; Just one in fifty SQF arrests - or about 0.1% of all stops-led to a conviction for a crime of violence; Just one in fifty SQF arrests - or about 0.1% of all stops - led to a conviction for possession of a weapon; and Almost one quarter of SQF arrests (24.7%) were dismissed before arraignment or resulted in a non-criminal charge such as an infraction or a violation at the time of arraignment. Details: Albany: Office of the Attorney General, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 25, 2017 at: https://ag.ny.gov/pdfs/OAG_REPORT_ON_SQF_PRACTICES_NOV_2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://ag.ny.gov/pdfs/OAG_REPORT_ON_SQF_PRACTICES_NOV_2013.pdf Shelf Number: 131684 Keywords: Racial Disparities Racial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and FriskStop and Search |
Author: Bowers, Josh Title: Perceptions of Fairness and Justice: The Shared Aims & Occasional Conflicts of Legitimacy and Moral Credibility Summary: A growing literature on procedural fairness suggests that there is practical value in enhancing a criminal justice system's "legitimacy" with the community it governs by adopting and implementing fair enforcement practices and adjudicative procedures. A separate literature suggests that there is practical value in enhancing the system's "moral credibility" with the community by distributing criminal liability and punishment according to principles that track the community's shared intuitions of justice. In this Article, we examine the shared aims and the similarities in the operation and effect of these two criminal justice dynamics as well as the occasional differences in effect and potential for conflict. By comparing the two dynamics, the article moves forward debates that - though rich and important - have grown stagnant. Specifically, legal scholars have tended to invoke the two dynamics too casually, to ignore one but not the other, or to conflate or confuse the two. This article provides a useful and necessary analytic framework for further exploration into the advantages and limits of moral credibility and legitimacy. Finally, the article stakes out tentative positions within the on-going debates. That is, it endorses the prevailing view that moral credibility and legitimacy are promising indeed, critical systemic enterprises that may carry significant crime-control advantages, and the article concludes that - for empirical and theoretic reasons - moral credibility ought to be the principal objective in uncommon circumstances in which a system may effectively pursue only one Details: Unpublished paper, 2011. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: University of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 11-13: Accessed October 26, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1814006 Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1814006 Shelf Number: 123784 Keywords: Criminal Law Police Legitimacy Preventive Detention Racial ProfilingStop and Frisk |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union Title: Bad Trip: Debunking the TSA's 'Behavior Detection' Program Summary: Documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit concerning the TSA's behavior detection program reinforce that the program utilizes unscientific techniques and creates an unacceptable risk of racial and religious profiling. Independent experts and government auditors have long criticized the behavior detection program as flawed and wasteful-the program cost at least $1.5 billion through 2015. The TSA's own documents and materials in its files now vindicate those criticisms. The documents show the evolution of the behavior detection program and make clear the extent to which it is a program of surveillance of unsuspecting travelers based on unreliable indicators. "Behavior detection officers," some of them dressed in plain clothes, scrutinize travelers at airports for over 90 behaviors that the TSA associates with stress, fear, or deception, looking for what the TSA calls signs of "mal-intent." The reliability of these so-called indicators is not supported by the scientific studies in the TSA files. The behavior detection officers may then engage travelers in "casual conversation" that is actually an effort to probe the basis for any purported signs of deception. When the officers think they perceive those behaviors, they follow the travelers, subject them to additional screening, and at times bring in law enforcement officers who can investigate them further. The TSA has repeatedly claimed that the behavior detection program is grounded in valid science, but the records that the ACLU obtained show that the TSA has in its possession a significant body of research that contradicts those claims. The records include numerous academic studies and articles that directly undermine the premise of the program: the notion that TSA officers can identify threats to aviation security with some reliability based on specific behaviors in an airport setting. In fact, the scientific literature in the TSA's own files reinforces that deception detection is inherently unreliable, and that many of the behaviors the TSA is apparently relying on are actually useless in detecting deception. The documents further show that the TSA either overstated the scientific validity of behavior detection techniques in communications with members of Congress and government auditors, or did not disclose information that discredited the program's scientific validity. The documents also include materials that range from culturally insensitive to racially and religiously biased and sexist. We do not know whether and to what extent the TSA relied on some of these materials in implementing its behavior detection program, but the materials do not provide credible support for its validity. Finally, previously undisclosed internal investigative materials shed more light on, and substantiate already public allegations of, racial and religious profiling by behavior detection officers at specific airports-Newark, Miami, Chicago, and Honolulu. The TSA should-indeed, must-screen passengers for weapons or other items that could threaten aviation security, but documents in its own files make clear that its behavior detection program does not further that mission. Congress should discontinue funding the TSA's behavior detection program, and the TSA should implement a rigorous anti-discrimination training program for its workforce. Details: New York: ACLU, 2017. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 14, 2018 at: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/dem17-tsa_detection_report-v02.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/dem17-tsa_detection_report-v02.pdf Shelf Number: 150182 Keywords: Airline PassengersAirport SecurityHomeland SecurityPassenger ScreeningRacial Profiling |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union of DC Title: Racial Disparities in D.C. Policing: Descriptive Evidence from 2013-2017 Summary: Racial disparities pervade criminal justice systems across the country; Washington, D.C. is no exception. The District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recently provided extensive arrest data for the years 2013 to 2017 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Open the Government and ACLU-DC. An examination of that data by the ACLU Analytics Team revealed a pattern of disproportionate arrests of Black people that persists across geographic areas and offense types. It also showed that MPD arrests thousands of people every year for relatively minor offenses. This report analyzes these trends and proposes steps for addressing them. Details: Washington, DC: American Civil Liberties Union of DC, 2019. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 7, 2019 at: https://www.acludc.org/en/racial-disparities-dc-policing-descriptive-evidence-2013-2017 Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.acludc.org/en/racial-disparities-dc-policing-descriptive-evidence-2013-2017 Shelf Number: 156213 Keywords: ArrestsLaw EnforcementPolicingRacial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacism |
Author: Garnett, Margaret Title: Complaints of Biased Policing in New York City: An Assessment of NYPD's Investigations, Policies, and Training Summary: In New York City, "Bias-Based Profiling," otherwise known as biased policing, is defined in Section 14-151 of the New York City Administrative Code as any discriminatory action by law enforcement that is motivated by a persons actual or perceived status protected by law. In October 2014, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) began investigating complaints of biased policing, such as racial profiling, as a distinct complaint classification. Prior to that, NYPD did not track biased policing complaints. Accordingly, no separate records exist regarding investigations or discipline related to complaints of biased policing prior to the 2014 creation of the classification. Biased policing, whether perceived or actual, is a matter of significant public concern. Communities affected by certain policing practices report high levels of distrust of the police, as the remedial process of Floyd v. City of New York has documented. Concerns regarding bias (or the perception of bias) by officers are, among other factors, intricately tied to public trust in law enforcement. NYPD's implementation of a specific process for investigating complaints of biased policing in 2014 detailed important steps that investigators must take when handling such allegations against its officers and other personnel. The new process reinforced the Department's commitment to its policy that race, color, ethnicity, national origin, and other actual or perceived protected statuses may not be used as a motivating factor to initiate police action (or to refrain from police action). This new policy was coupled with revisions to the Patrol Guide that acknowledged policing practices must be constitutionally sound and that prohibited the use of racial profiling and other types of biased policing in law enforcement. The Department of Investigation's (DOI's) Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD (OIG-NYPD) examined NYPD's handling of 888 biased policing allegations filed between late 2014 and early 2017 and closed by mid-2017. These allegations were made against both uniformed (i.e., police officers) and non-uniformed NYPD personnel. The investigation resulted in several findings regarding the policies and practices of both NYPD and the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). Some key findings include: Although members of the public have made at least 2,495 complaints of biased policing since the creation of the "Racial Profiling and Bias-Based Policing" complaint category in 2014, all of which have resulted in investigations, NYPD's investigators have not substantiated a single such claim out of the 1,918 complaints that were closed as of December 31, 2018. (See Figure 2 on page 19 for a complete breakdown of the dispositions of biased policing allegations). NYPD officials confirmed in June 2019 that the Department has never substantiated an allegation of biased policing. As discussed in this Report, such allegations can be difficult to prove. - The majority of the biased policing complaints (68.0%) contained allegations of discriminatory policing based on race, ethnicity, color, or national origin. Other complaints alleged biased policing on the basis of creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, age, citizenship status, alienage, housing status, and other non-physical characteristics. - NYPD does not investigate as biased policing an officer's use of offensive or derogatory language related to a complainant's actual or perceived protected status, such as a racial slur, even though NYPD prohibits such conduct. By contrast, if a complainant alleges that an officer used a racial slur and took additional police action (e.g., making an arrest), then NYPD would investigate the matter as biased policing. - According to CCRB, the City's primary agency charged with investigating allegations of police officer misconduct involving Force, Abuse of Authority, Discourtesy, and Offensive Language, CCRB has substantiated numerous allegations of Offensive Language made against NYPD officers since 2014. CCRB, does not, however, investigate complaints of biased policing made against officers. This makes CCRB an outlier among the independent police review agencies that primarily handle complaints of police misconduct in the largest U.S. police departments. - NYPD began administering implicit (i.e., unconscious) bias training in February 2018 with the goal of training uniformed members to recognize unintentional bias. - NYPD's early intervention and performance monitoring systems do not monitor biased policing allegations made against its uniformed and other employees with the same depth and diligence that NYPD brings to tracking excessive force claims involving NYPD personnel. - Although NYPD and CCRB both receive allegations of biased policing, they do not formally share information about such allegations with the City's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) to aid that agency's investigative efforts into individualized or systemic discrimination against members of the public. Based on these and other findings, OIG-NYPD's recommendations include the following: - NYPD should amend its policies so that complaints alleging the use of offensive or derogatory language associated with an individual's actual or perceived status, such as racial slurs, are classified and investigated as biased policing in addition to "Offensive Language." As with other biased policing allegations, proving that the uniformed member of NYPD had a discriminatory intent will be necessary to substantiate the allegation as biased policing. - CCRB should adopt a policy to classify and investigate allegations of biased policing by uniformed members of NYPD under its "Abuse of Authority" jurisdiction instead of referring such allegations to IAB for investigation. - NYPD should develop and implement a pilot mediation program for some biased policing complaints. - City agencies that handle biased policing complaints (NYPD, CCRB, and CCHR) should convene within the next four months to address the findings and recommendations in OIG-NYPD's investigation. Consistent with all of the recommendations, these New York City government agencies should develop protocols and procedures to regularly share data and information on biased policing complaints. - NYPD should publish statistics for the public as part of an annual report covering complaints of biased policing. These statistics should, at a minimum, include a breakdown of the following: (i) the subject officer's uniformed versus non-uniformed status, bureau or unit assignment, gender, race/ethnicity, age, and length of service to the Department; (ii) the self-reported demographics (race/ethnicity, sex, age, etc.) of complainants; (iii) the types of police encounters that resulted in complaints of biased policing; (iv) the number of biased policing complaints initiated by borough and precinct; (v) the discriminatory policing conduct alleged; (vi) the sub-classifications and outcomes of such complaints; and (vii) the status of the Department's efforts to prevent biased policing. This information should be conspicuously visible on NYPD's website and in other locations where such information would be readily available to the public. Details: New York: Department of Investigation, New York City Police Department, 2019. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 12, 2019 at: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doi/reports/pdf/2019/Jun/19BiasRpt_62619.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doi/newsroom/public-reports.page Shelf Number: 156973 Keywords: Biased Policing Complaints Against Police Discrimination Law Enforcement Police Department Police Officers Racial Profiling |