Collecting, Categorizing and Analyzing Demographic Data in San Diego in the years of the Profiling Plague.

A letter essentially identical to the below was sent to Chief Lansdowne on the date indicated. I refrained from using my preferred expression "bullshit detector" and instead used the lame "balderdash detector."

I must and will do better.

February 15, 2014

William Lansdowne

Chief, San Diego Police Department

By email to : sdpdpolicechief@pd.sandiego.gov

Subsequent to my communication, to you, that contained my analysis of 2013 stop data, I located one or more Official San Diego documents that contained other analyses and officer comments. The analyses were not at odds with mine. So were the observations and comments, including those of the officers and supervisors. I harbour no doubt that you are familiar with all of them. Aside from directing you to the obvious, i.e. the possibility of constituting stop analysis data from Citation data[1], I will let you re-read them for yourself.

Vehicle Stop Form Racial Categories

The United States Census identifies these categories:

·         Black or African American alone

·         American Indian and Alaska Native alone

·         Asian alone

·         Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone

·         Two or More Races

·         Hispanic or Latino

·         White alone, not Hispanic or Latino

The Federal Government, in its feeble attempts to monitor discriminatory practices, uses or used the following categories:

·         American Indian and Alaska Native

·         Black not of Hispanic Origin

·         Asian or Pacific Islander

·         Other (specify)

·         Hispanic

·         White not of Hispanic origin

See Uniform Residential Loan Application or Fannie Mae form 1003. Required HMDA reporting data.

Finally; in support of using census-like categories, you, Chief Lansdowne implemented a tracking system in San Jose[2] that used a system of categorization that is only slightly dissimilar to that required by the Federal government:

A = Asian American.

B = African American.

H = Hispanic.

I = Native American.

O = Other.

P = Pacific Islander.

S = Middle Eastern/East Indian[3].

W = White.

Furthermore, since analyses regularly refer to Census data, common-sense tells us to use categories that the Census uses because officers,  understandably, are confused or challenged by the following categories, as appear on the recently-obtained Vehicle Stop forms.

 And, you and or Deputy Chief Zimmerman have recently stated that it is difficult to precisely determine demographic data. I now understand why.

Therefore, after adopting the Census/San Jose Categories (save one) existing values for Chinese, Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese (VIET), Asian Indian  should be set to Asian; like so:

Update StopData SET Race = 'A' WHERE Race in ('C','D','J','K','L',’V’,’Z’);

And, the island people Filipino, Samoan, Guamanian, Hawaiian should be placed in the category Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, like so:

Update StopData SET Race = 'P' WHERE Race in ('F','S','G',’U’);

These data group changes have very little effect on the larger groups; certainly none on Whites, Blacks or Hispanics.

Perhaps, Jamaicans should be classified as Other since they do take the Latinized version of their motto “E pluribus unum[4]” quite literally and are quite exceptional. They should not be classified as Indian even though they are West Indian and around 2% of them are descendants of Indians of Asian origin and few, if any, are descended from the Taino (called Indians by the lost Genoan or Genoese). Given their outsized cultural footprint, they deserve to be given their own category[5].

Almost Finally; in a recent journal comparing the 1990s to the present, studies have established that when the community criticized police for targeting the black community during traffic stops it received more media coverage and toned down racial profiling. However, whenever there was a significant lack of media coverage or concern with racial profiling, the amount of arrests and traffic stops for the African-American community would significantly rise again. For this reason alone, the Public Safety and Livable Communities Committee has a useful purpose. However, that purpose is undermined by the SDPD policy of anonymity that is, for all intents and purposes, a grant of immunity[6] to bigots on the SDPD.

I see that you and or your underlings are scheduled for another session before the City Council, or one of its committees, on April 16, 2014. Although, I prefer to proceed unaccompanied, I intend to attend; God willing. I intend to come equipped with a well-calibrated “balderdash” detector. To that end, please provide Vehicle Stop Data for the period, upon which your report shall be based, so that the required calibration can be performed beforehand. Accordingly; please consider this part of this communication to be a California Public Records Act Request ; (Government Code section 6250 et seq.)

I close with Judge Battaglia’s observation from Case 3:11-cv-00876-AJB-WVG Document 78 Filed 05/28/13 Page 17 of 25:

The remedy for improper police conduct is in the courts, not in private

reprisal[7]. (People v. Coffey, 67 A.C. 145, 162, fn. 18, 60 Cal. Rptr. 457, 430 P.2d 15; People v. Baca, 247 A.C.A. 560, 569, 55 Cal. Rptr. 681.)

I hope to see you and your underlings on April 16, 2014, or on whatever the appointed date is; I think. I do not intend to allow the amount of arrests and traffic stops for the African-American community to significantly rise again. I intend to follow Judge Battaglia’s Order.

Finally sir; I do not like Officer Chris Hays’ Stop and Frisk Policy. Few do; certainly not those 7 women. I suppose that his father’s position had nothing to do with the department’s blind-eye policy to the many much-earlier reports regarding his behavior.

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[1] With the attendant risk that the citing Police Officers will be identifiable and consequently shall lose promised anonymity; a rock and a harder place, indeed.

[2] A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems; page 19

[3] The lumping together, doubtless due to the post-9-11 inability of dunces to distinguish the turbans worn by Sikhs from those worn by Arabs. That a police department, led by a giant such as you, officially subscribed to this ignorance is, at best, dismaying. Why not use education instead?

Just after 9-11, my daughter’s college friend, on parental orders, discarded his turban and cut his hair. A neighbourhood Sikh man discarded his turban, kept his hair, but donned a hat.

[4] They use the English “Out of many one people” or literally “From many one” or, as those who do not understand exceptionalism would prefer, “One out of many.”  

The Jamaican motto was stolen from what appears on the Great Seal of the United States of America.

[5] Tongue firmly in cheek.

[6] In San Jose, too, there was effective or functional immunity, regarding use of data. See page 21 of A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems

[7] I would also exclude the Public Safety and Livable Communities Committee of the City Council; not for now, but certainly for later.