I am Maureen Cavanaugh, our top story, San Diego city councilmember Scott to hear a presentation about the racial breakdown of traffic stops. The research results were not entirely clear or convincing to several members. And CSU researchers presented some of the key findings of the report which was commissioned a year and a half ago, that the full report submitted has not been released. Earlier today I spoke with Marty Emerald who commissioned the report. We caught up with her at an event in city Heights. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much. After hearing yesterday's presentation, do you feel you have enough information to say if there is racial bias in traffic stops in San Diego? Not entirely, and that is because we did get a PowerPoint presentation. It did indicate that the cases of possible profiling were reduced between 19 -- Excuse me, 2014 and 2015. That appear to be encouraging. We really did not get all the data that we needed to be able to really say for sure if stops were for legitimate reasons or if it was because it was a person of color behind the wheel. There was enough to be cover interest and get us asking more questions. We will have an opportunity to do that on November 30. We talked about the researchers methods yesterday on the show, it is called the veil of darkness, it compares stops made in the daytime with stops made at night. You have confidence in that methodology to determine if racial profiling is a problem? I am not an expert in this kind of scientific work. Apparently this veil of darkness strategy has been used in cities around the country. I think San Diego is about the eighth major city to use this method. What it is basically is measuring the stops that occur between pre-dusk and darkness. So, a three-hour window essentially. The researchers said they were able to capture about 40,000 cases and that was a big enough sampling to be able to determine what is happening with the stops. That is where they got their numbers. That time of day, because researchers were telling us they can actually still see inside of cars to determine if the driver is white or black or Hispanic or Asian and it becomes a little more true to the question of: Was the person stopped because they were a person of color or what? It did not tell us why the stop happened in the first place. This is one of the questions we hope to have answers to what we see the full report. Maureen: during the testimony yesterday, a speaker and at least one councilmember push back on this methodology say people can -- I do not become invisible when the sun goes down. This is perhaps not the best way to determine whether or not there is racial profiling X traffic stops. Guest: has only been rolled out in recent years. This is the eighth major test of the strategy. We will see what comes of it. Again, any judgment for me right now is premature because I haven't seen the full report. I want to stress that I am not speaking on behalf of the Police Department. We began this project about a year and a half ago. While it was delayed somewhat we were interested back then and finding some answers to this issue and these pressing questions. I think it puts us a little bit ahead of the game to comply with the new state law that surely whoever wrote, that law will hopefully give Police Department's tools and direction so that we do not have these pressing questions coming to us about racial profiling. It will change the way data is collected, the way it is used to train officers or to direct officers and how to go about traffic stops. I think San Diego has recognized for some time that we have an issue and that we need to address it seriously. We wanted to find out what the issue really is. Maureen: researchers also found police were not collecting all required information and much of the information they did have was incomplete. Does this motivate the Council to move more quickly to implement AV 953, which does require more in-depth reporting by police? Guest: absolutely. That was a question that kept coming up. How do we begin implementing 953? How do we take this information, how do we expand on it to get the extra information that we need so that we can move ahead with implementing 953. We have some time to do it and we have some challenges. For example, we only started rolling out our new computer assisted dispatch program. That is where we would begin storing information collected in the field. In the meantime, we will continue the stop carts. I think the direction from the researchers is to add more information to that so that we can fill in holes. Another issue is tracking behavior of police officers. This was a recommendation of the report from a year or so ago where the federal government came in and investigated problems with the police department and issue 40 recommendations. One was to create a computerized system that collects data on officers, complaints against officers, traffic stops they make, any number of issues. It is designed to catch issues with officers early. It is also used to help evaluate where the officer is and perhaps what extra support they may need. That is just in its beginning stages. I have been speaking with Marty Emerald. Thank you so much.
Full results of a long-delayed comprehensive study on vehicle stops by police in San Diego and how they relate to race and ethnicity will be made public by Thanksgiving, city officials said Wednesday.
Preliminary findings, presented at a meeting of the City Council's Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee, showed a disparity between races impacted by traffic stops in 2014, but not as much last year.
Researchers from the San Diego State University School of Public Affairs reviewed tens of thousands of data cards filled out by SDPD officers about stops to put together their conclusions on whether racial profiling is a problem in the city. The study compared the officers' traffic stop patterns during daylight hours, when a police officer could presumably more easily determine a person's race, to stop patterns at night.
Researcher Joshua Chanin said initial findings showed in 2014 black drivers were about 20 percent more likely than white drivers to be pulled over and younger black motorists were 45 percent more likely to be stopped than their white counterparts.
The report did not show similar disparities for black drivers in 2015 nor for Hispanic drivers in either year, Chanin added.
In areas patrolled by officers in the department's four southern divisions, which includes the southern, southeaster, mid-city and central sub-stations, Chanin said white drivers were actually found to be pulled over about 30 percent more often than Hispanic drivers and 20 percent more often than black drivers.
Digital slides of the initial review released Tuesday showed racial disparities did exist in some of the data but did not include the specific numbers.
The initial report also showed Hispanic and black motorists who were stopped by police in 2014 and 2015 were searched more often than white drivers, but that they were found less likely to be carrying contraband, Chanin said. Arrests rates for both groups were similar but black motorists experienced field interviews at a higher rate, while white drivers were slightly more likely to receive a citation, he said.
Similar patters were found when comparing stop traffic data for Hispanic and white drivers, Chanin said.
"They are less likely to be found with contraband despite higher search rates," he said.
Hispanic drivers also experienced slightly higher rates of arrests and field interviews, but there was little to no difference in the citation rate when compared to white drivers.
Chanin did not provide information about why drivers were pulled over nor what led to the arrests, field interviews and citations in these instances.
Committee members and residents who attended the meeting criticized the summary report for not including these and other details. Councilwoman Myrtle Cole said the preliminary findings didn't reference many hard numbers, which made them difficult to interpret.
"It was confusing and we don't want confusing," Cole said. "We want to get this and understand so we can help resolve it."
Norma Chávez-Peterson, the head of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties, also said she was disappointed in how the initial report was presented.
"The information and analysis provided today was not presented in a way that is easily understood by the average person," she said.
Chávez-Peterson also requested the full report include details about the genders and ages of drivers, when and where motorists were pulled over and the reasons they were stopped. But she added, the initial results did shed light on an important issue.
"The San Diego State slides shared by the mayor's office just yesterday confirmed that it's more than a feeling that black and Latino folks and other marginalized communities are targeted by the police. It's true," Chávez-Peterson said.
Councilwoman Marti Emerald requested the mayor's office address concerns and questions raised by the ACLU and make the final report available by Thanksgiving, which falls on Nov. 24. Emerald said she wanted the public to have enough time to review the comprehensive document before the committee hears it at its meeting on Nov. 30.
San Diego Chief Operating Officer Scott Chadwick said he agreed.
"This is something critically important, I think not only to the community but the police department,'' Chadwick said. "We welcomed the opportunity to have worked with San Diego State, and we want to get this finalized as soon as possible."
Per the city's contract with SDSU, the mayor has 90 days to review and make available the final report, but city staff is expediting the process, a spokesman said.
Chanin, who conducted the study with colleagues from the SDSU School of Public Affairs, said missing data posed a challenge to the team during its research.
“Nineteen percent of all submitted vehicle stop data cards is missing at least one piece of information," he said, adding that many vehicle stop data cards were not submitted at all.
The SDSU report included several recommendations — among them an acknowledgement of the existence of racial and ethnic disparities, enhancing training in the area of bias, replacing data cards with an improved record-keeping system and making community engagement a core value. Chanin also suggested the department collect data on pedestrian and bicycle stops and make the data easily available to the public.
Chief Shelley Zimmerman said the SDPD has taken steps to address some of these issues over the past two years.
"We have made significant progress on the recommendation to enhance officer training and oversight,'' Zimmerman said. "We've enhanced our training program over the past two years to integrate a variety of courses in our annual command training and advanced officer training.''
She said courses are provided on procedural justice and other issues with the intent of increasing self-awareness among department employees.
At the meeting, community members said using race as a factor in policing can cause harm.
The father of Alfred Olango, an unarmed refugee from Uganda who was shot and killed by an El Cajon police officer last month, said he believes it contributed to the death of his son.
"Because racial profiling is embedded in police brutality, which needs to be addressed," Richard Olango said.
