Skip to main content

Berkeley; the bastion of progressive values?

April 26, 2018

Yesterday, I sent the within to the Mayor of Berkeley and others, in the mayor's office, as listed. Much nothing will come of it; not until Berkeley is sued for some  atrocity in policing. Believe me, it is just a matter of time. Doubtless we will have the usual protestations, denials and promises. The lot below shall not be able to say that they did not know of the rot; the oppression; the bias.

Berkeley's data is, for want of a polite expression, piss-poor. This opinion may be partly driven by the fact that the data is not in the form that Berkeley represents it to be; that over 3,400 records have no demographic data, and that it leaves out some of the most basic, the most common, policing data elements. On the other hand, it carries data of other persons involved in the stop, but one cannot determine who is driver and who is passenger. It is, as it is, but it tells the same old story, and it tells plenty; albeit less vividly than most other places.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin

Brandi Campbell, Chief of Staff to the Mayor
bcampbell@cityofberkeley.info
Jacquelyn McCormick, Senior Advisor to the Mayor
jmccormick@cityofberkeley.info
Karina Ioffee, Director of Communications
kioffee@cityofberkeley.info
Stefan Elgstrand, Assistant to the Mayor
selgstrand@cityofberkeley.info
Tano Trachtenberg, Legislative Assistant
TTrachtenberg@cityofberkeley.info

Mr. Mayor;

I fetched your Stop Data, from the Open Data site, a few weeks ago. I do not like the results of what your data produces. Neither should you, nor will anyone.

Summary of Findings

1.      Berkeley PD officers stopped (5.93) searched (2.25) and arrested (1.53) and issued more citations (3.4) to Blacks, by proportion, than Whites and Asians. Blacks are subjected to a disproportionate number of 4th Waiver, Vehicle and Inventory Searches. They get more Warnings, too (a place where constitutionally-infirm stops are concealed.) Hispanics fare better, but not well. To understand this data, one needs go no farther than the stacked-bar chart below. See also Figure 14; Encounters and Stop Causes.

2.      These adverse disparities exist for Blacks and Hispanics, irrespective of Encounter Type. See Encounters and Stop Causes, in the full report.

3.       Blacks receive a disproportionate share of citations; 3.41 times as many, by population, as Whites.

4.      The Citation Rate for Blacks is almost 7 (6.77) points lower than the next closest group, Hispanics. This is the result of an extraordinarily disproportionately high number of stops; a disproportion that is shown in the massive Disparity Index of 3.38 (Stops to Population %.) The disparity to Whites— who have a disparity index of .57— is 5.93. The foregoing fact exists as a paradox to the high Citation Issuance rate, which rate is computed against population presence.

5.      The stop disproportion for Blacks, by far, outstrips that all other groups.
·         Some 29.10% of Berkeley stops were of Blacks, who make up 8.6%[1] of Berkeley’s population. When compared to the inverse disproportion enjoyed by Whites, Black stop disproportion is an eye-catching 5.93.
·         Asians are around 20.1% of the population but compose only 6.99% of stops; an inverse disparity to population, and to Whites. A Massive inverse proportionality to Blacks and Hispanics.
·         Whites are 56.00% of the population but compose just 32.18% of stops; an inverse disparity.
·         Hispanics are 10.1% of the population and compose 10.84% of stops.

6.      Berkeley does not disclose whether searches are Consent or Non-consent, neither does it disclose contraband recovery results. Since such contraband recovery is an essential part of police record keeping, it is concluded that this value is beingconcealed. In the absence of contraband recovery results, Hit Rates may not be computed.

7.      There is Warning data but the type of warning is not clear. In the presence of this ambiguity, all warnings are coded as Written Warnings.

8.      The values necessary for the computation of the rate at which persons are ordered to exit Vehicles are not disclosed.

9.      Stop duration has not been disclosed.

10.  On an overall basis, when over 9 discrete stop and post-stop actions were examined, Blacks are adversely disparately dealt with more than 1.7 times that of Whites. The disparity is even larger when the comparison is made to Asians.



A complete report that has more words, but scant more information, may be fetched here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Even More Fatally Flawed And Still Unfit for Purpose or The Great Distraction

Subject: RIPA Advisory Board – More Fatally Flawed and Still Unfit for Purpose   I wanted to wait until I came into possession of the actual 2025 Annual RIPA Report, before writing this, but I found myself between a rock and a hard place. My strongest motivator was fear; fear of reading a newspaper or web-account of the RIPA results or seeing a TV Broadcast that is ruled by lies and/or happy talk. I remember last year too well.  I also feared that, as was the case with the reports from the last few years, the RIPA Report, to which the press has early or immediate access, would not become available to me for several days.  Because of that, I decided to write this.   “Racial Discrimination is an inference that may be drawn from Racial Disparities.” In the absence of other inferences, or plausible explanations, our choices become limited.   There is an abundance of racial disparities to be found in RIPA data. I am unaware of any adverse disparity that has...

Self-Inflicted Wounds are quite useful

April 6, 2014 Richard Hylton 13166 Jane Court San Diego, CA 92129 HyltonRichard@gmail.com By Email On the day that preceded the presentation of Vehicle Stop Data, by the SDPD, an email was circulated with this leading sentence. Update:   After reviewing the year-long   data   on race released by SDPD, there are major differences between what the   data   showed at 8 months versus at the end of 12 months. We don’t know why the numbers are so different (e.g. the number of stops per month fell significantly between January and December), but this underlines the need for a thorough, independent analysis of the   data   that can be communicated to the public. In light of this development, we have updated the ACLU’s comments below. The above was shocking and surprising, since it came from a writer who knew that a significant –some would say dramatic- fall-off in data collection rates had occurred in the fourth quarter. Evidence of the ...

Deception

Background The United States Department of Justice has an opinion and position that is at odds with that of the San Diego Police Department. It holds that: "The guarantee to all persons of equal protection under the law is one of the most fundamental principles of our democratic society. Law enforcement officers should not endorse or act upon stereotypes, attitudes, or beliefs that a person’s race, ethnicity, or national origin increases that person’s general propensity to act unlawfully. There is no tradeoff between effective law enforcement and protection of the civil rights of all Americans; we can and must have both." In 2011, during litigation, Vehicle Stop data for the prior two years was sought. The City of San Diego, in sworn and other statements or filings, denied having any Vehicle Stop Data and convinced the court of that fact. In January 2013 I learned that the City had committed perjury. Following that I obtained and distributed Vehicle Stop...