Report: Blacks Twice As Likely As Whites To Be Stopped By Police In San Diego

Speaker 1: 00:00 A new report funded by the ACL. OU has some harsh criticism of San Diego law enforcement. An examination of interactions between local police and Sheriff's deputies and minority groups found evidence of bias. The report spanned a two year period and looked at how local law enforcement treated people of color, people with disabilities and the LGBT community. Midday additions. Jade Heinemann spoke with Samuelson young way, cofounder of campaign zero, the advocacy group that conducted the research. Here's that interview. Speaker 2: 00:34 So what prompted this research and what were the key findings in this report? So, uh, under the racial identity profiling act, uh, which recently was signed into law in California, uh, every police department in the state is now responsible for reporting data on every stop that they make. What happens during that stop, whether they start somebody or arrest somebody or use force against them. Uh, and so this data is just now coming, becoming available, uh, to the public. And so, you know, we're an organization that has been working for quite some time, uh, to collect and analyze data on policing, uh, to better understand how communities are impacted by policing, uh, analyze racial disparities in policing, uh, and then to identify the policies and practices that work to end police violence and improve accountability. Um, so we looked at this data, uh, we analyzed it for about a year, uh, and uh, to have just presented our findings@policescorecard.org and so the, the report highlights some disparities among, uh, various communities. Speaker 2: 01:34 Uh, talk to me a bit about that. We looked at both the San Diego police department and the San Diego Sheriff's department. Just to give you a sense of the scale and scope of, uh, the discrimination. Uh, we found that the San Diego police department made 35,000 stops of black people, uh, in a one year period from mid 2018 through mid 2019 in a city that has 88,000 total black population. So 35,000 stops, 88,000 population. Um, which is a very extreme level of policing. Black people were 219%, more likely to be stopped by San Diego police department, uh, more likely to be searched during that stop, more likely to be arrested during that stop. 59% more likely to have the police use force against them. Uh, and San Diego Sheriff's department had similar outcomes to that as well. And these disparities also exist, uh, among people with disabilities and among the LGBTQ community. Speaker 2: 02:25 Talk to me about that as well. Absolutely. So, uh, one of the things that has been incredible about the racial identity profiling act, um, is that for the first time we're an to analyze data, uh, on policing impacting LGBT communities, uh, policing impacting communities with disabilities. Uh, and what we see for both departments, San Diego sheriff and police department, um, is that, uh, if you are LGBT, the officer perceives you to be able to be T, then you are more likely, uh, to be searched during a stop. You are more likely to have the police use force against you and you're more likely to be arrested. Um, that is also if you are a person with disabilities, uh, in particular, uh, somebody with mental disabilities, um, the police were about 100% more likely to use force against folks, uh, with mental disabilities. Uh, and if you are black and LGBT or black and have mental disabilities, you are more likely to, to have all of those things happen to you than if you were white. Speaker 2: 03:18 Uh, and and, uh, had disabilities and white and LGBT. Um, so we're seeing the intersection of identities and how police respond, uh, to identity and race in ways that are discriminatory. The San Diego police and San Diego County Sheriff's department dispute the report's findings in a statement. The Sheriff's department said, well, they haven't had time to review the entire report in detail. Some of the statistics in the report do not match their inhouse data. Is there any way their data could be different? This is their data. Um, so all of the data that we use for this analysis is their own data. Um, we requested through public records requests and this is data that they are mandated to report, uh, under the racial identity profiling act. Um, and we obtain that data and analyzed it. So this is, we didn't make this up, we didn't just invent a dataset. Speaker 2: 04:03 Um, we got this data from the police. Um, so this is what their officers are reporting doing. Um, and so, you know, they're welcome to provide, uh, their internal data and do their own analysis of it. Um, but we have obtained the data from them, um, conducted that analysis. Uh, and this is what it says, um, which is, you know, it is disturbing and you know, again, they, they said they haven't done a thorough review of the report. Um, so you know, when they do that thorough review of the report and are ready to talk about what they want to do to address the findings of the report, um, I'd be happy to talk with them, you know, law enforcement and have said there are public safety reasons for all of their interactions. Does this report refute that in any way? It does. Um, so for example, one in five stops resulted in a police search and this is true across both departments. Speaker 2: 04:53 Both had similar search rates. Um, you're more likely to be searched if you are a black or Brown, you're more likely to be searched. A few, uh, are perceived to have a disability if you're LGBT. And of all of those searches that are conducted thousands and thousands of searches every single year, 77% of all searches across both departments did not find anything, anything, so no reason for that search. Um, so police are engaging in thousands of searches every year. A vast majority find nothing. Uh, when they do find something, it's drugs and drug paraphernalia. Um, they're finding almost nothing that impacts public safety. And yet thousands of people are being impacted by this practice every single year. The report has 10 policy recommendations for San Diego police department and 12 for the San Diego County Sheriff's department. Can you walk us through a few of the top policy recommendations? Sure. So one of the key recommendations is, uh, recognizing that when we look at the arrest data, uh, police were predominantly arresting people for low level offenses. Speaker 2: 05:51 So about 70% of all arrests were for misdemeanors. Um, and when you look what those charges were, um, they're for things that don't impact public safety, uh, by and large. So for example, police made more arrests or this or a similar number of arrests for drug possession alone as for violent and property crimes combined for both departments. And this is after you know, the legalization of marijuana that is not serving a public safety rationale. Um, there are a whole bunch of rests, thousands and thousands of arrests, uh, for, um, what they call quality of life offenses. And when you look at what those are, they tend to be, uh, associated with, uh, policing, homelessness and poverty. Um, essentially being outside and on property that you don't own because you don't have any money. There are cities right now, let's say for example, you look at Eugene, Oregon, um, they've decided to adopt a different approach to many of these, uh, situations. Speaker 2: 06:45 Uh, when somebody is having substance abuse issues, when somebody is going through a mental health crisis, um, they will send a mental health provider instead of a police officer to those cases. Um, there were 2,500 youth who were arrested, uh, for the only charge listed there was mental illness. Um, why are they being arrested for that? Um, there are other approaches that are nonviolent that don't involve somebody armed with a gun, arresting somebody and messing up their whole life, um, for something that it shouldn't even be a crime. Um, so scaling up those alternative approaches, scaling up what has worked in other jurisdictions, in other cities, um, to, uh, to, to deal with these high number of arrests for low level offenses is one of the key recommendations. Um, if that were implemented, uh, at least a third of all arrest by both departments, uh, would not happen. You can find the report@kpbs.org I've been speaking with Samuelson young way cofounder of campaign zero Samuel. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 3: 07:47 [inaudible].