Sacramento; she will not let me go.

In one of my earlier rants, I mentioned that the City of Sacramento's Stop Data did provide the means of identifying the individualized conduct of its officers, and to that end I had sought that of the "Shootists" who had gunned down Stephon Clark, because he brandished a lethal cellphone with his back turned, whilst in his grandmother's backyard. It was a fool's errand, probably the result of tiredness, for I should have known better. As is par for the course, the city of Sacramento refused, citing an unsubstantiated claim of concern for officer safety. The city does know that a specific or particularized threat needs to exist for its invocation of the safety exclusion, but they also know that their resources are greater than mine.

While waiting for the above; serendipity! In browsing a local Sacramento newspaper there was an account of the interaction of Sacramento PD officer Anthony Figueroa and 23 year-old Nandi Cain in or around April 2017. I leapt at the chance to examine the on-street conduct of Anthony Figueroa; who, incidentally, has just been returned to patrol duty. At the end of this you, too, will ask why. It would not be extreme to conclude that the City of Sacramento cases less for the safety of certain segments of its population. I do.

The below is the essence of communications that I sent to many; including the California Attorney General.

April 17, 2018

Law Offices of John L. Burris
Airport Corporate Centre
7677 Oakport Street, Suite 1120
Oakland, CA 94621

Re: The matter of Nandi Cain and Anthony Figueroa

By Facsimile to: Fax No: 510-839-3882

Dear Mr. Burris;

On or about February 14, 2018, I fetched and loaded stop data from Sacramento’s Open Data website. I ran it through a series of routines that I developed over the past 4 years and was particularly unimpressed. I was unimpressed because the data told a common though unsurprising story. The story is unsurprising because it showed disparities that are worse than we have, here in San Diego, worse than they have in Ferguson Mo. Sacramento’s indicia of bias are in the neighbourhood of what exists in Oakland and San Francisco.

The information, on the SPD, sat on my computer until the matter of Stephon Clarke became known to me. I forwarded it, my view or mathematical analysis, to the California Department of Justice, The RIPA Board, and to people in Sacramento’s government, but not at the officer level, because of sheer volume.

Sacramento’s data is better than most, for it contains information that allows examination of Officer-level behaviour[1]. Officer Figueroa’s is behaviour is extraordinary, even spectacular. In the period January 1, 2016 (2016-01-02 18:33:00.000) through April 2017 (2017-04-10 23:20:00.000) despite executing 349 stops, Figueroa cited and arrested zero Whites.

The following is a summary of Figueroa’s activity.

Summary of Findings

These findings are affected by the fact that the reporting officer, Anthony Figueroa, neither cites nor arrests Whites. All routines: calculations, algorithms, etc., include comparisons to the White experience. Absent values for Whites, they produce zeros. Not only that, despite making almost 350 reported contacts just over 15 months, in 2016-2017, fewer than half of the stops have a reported outcome. Accordingly, it would not be inappropriate to conclude that Figueroa is a legally-sanctioned and sworn harasser, not a law-enforcer.

1.   Anthony Figueroa stopped, searched, arrested, and issued more citations to Blacks, by proportion, than Whites[2], Asians and Hispanics. He ordered Blacks out of their cars more often; 2.77 times more often, and detained them longer; 28% longer. Hispanics fare better, but not well. These findings remain constant, and so significant, over a span of two years (15months[3].) As a practical matter, to understand the within, one needs go no farther than the stacked-bar chart below.  Figueroa, in just over 15 months (his “productivity” was truncated by his suspension from the force) out-performed his peers, in abominations. Figure 1; Figueroa’s results, and Figure 2; the results of the department as a whole, illustrate the former assertion.

Figure 1; Figueroa (OfficerAbra No. 4180, Officer ID 0888.)

Since Figueroa did not cite or arrest Whites, there is no way to gauge or compare any citation issuance or arrest rate to Whites. The same is true for inventory searches and searches incident to arrest. Accordingly, the gauges have zero values.

Figure 2, below, represents the entire department. It shows data not available in Figueroa’s race-constricted world.

Figure 2; All Officers

2.      In Figueroa’s universe, Blacks are issued a disproportionate share of citations; 2.80 times as many, by population, as Whites, who happen to receive none. See Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the entire SPD.

3.      And in Figueroa’s universe Whites do not get arrested, the air there is too pure for them[4] to be subjected to such indignities. See Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the entire SPD.

4.      Figueroa’s stop and post-stop disproportions, for actions against Blacks, by far, outstrips that for all other groups.

·         Some 38.97% of Figueroa’s stops were of Blacks (substantially higher than the SPD as a whole), who make up 13.90% of Sacramento’s population. When compared to the inverse disproportion enjoyed by Whites, Black stop disproportion is massive.

·         Asians are around 18.30% of the population but compose only 5.73% of Figueroa’s stops; an inverse disparity to population, and to Whites. A Massive inverse proportionality to Blacks and a substantial one to Hispanics.

·         Whites are 34.70% of the population but compose just 17.48% of Figueroa’s stops; an inverse disparity.

·         Hispanics are 26.40% of the population and compose 33.81% of Figueroa’s stops.

5.      The ACLU holds that Consent Searches are discretionary searches and that these are good indicators of bias. Blacks are searched 2.77 times as often as Whites but yield 19% fewer Hits. Figueroa’s pre-disposition to bias is unmistakable. Moreover, he wastes Sacramento’s scant police resources with his Black- Focus.

6.      If you are a passenger in a vehicle that is stopped by Figueroa, and the Driver is black, the odds of your being searched are greatly increased. For the entire SPD, Passenger Searches for Blacks are 2.54 times that of Whites. Figueroa achieves a extraordinary disparity of 8.52. See Figure 1.

7.      There is no forbearance data, but what is intriguing is the unmistakable appearance that Figueroa operates as a “policeman rouser[5]”; he stops people and a substantial number of his stops, the majority, produce no outcomes; quite amazing and seemingly unknown to his supervisors, wh have now put him back on patrol.

8.      The rate at which Figueroa orders Blacks to exit Vehicles is spectacular, when compared to Whites (2.76.) Only that of Hispanics approach it, and that approach is not close. It suggests that bigotry drives a belief that Blacks are inherently more dangerous, a misapprehension that has resulted in deaths. There is a direct correlation between Figueroa’s orders to exit vehicles and Figueroa’s searches. Figueroa’s searches should have been focused on Whites for even his experience shows that the yields of contraband are higher there; almost 20% higher.

9.      At an average of 13.49 minutes, the stop duration for Blacks, in Figueroa’s control, is 29% higher than it is for Whites. Here again, Blacks closest companions are Hispanics, a group that “enjoys” an average stop duration of 11.61 minutes.

10.  Many stops continue to appear to be motivated by a “Hit-driven” desire to determine the parole or probationary status of Blacks. Since the data does not tell us how Figueroa, or any Sacramento police officer, can identify these parolees or probationers, it is reasonable to conclude that race is the means for identification. Be that as it may, these stops are unproductive even though, the pugilist, Figueroa 4^th-Waiver-searches Blacks at 2.77 times the rate that he 4^th-Waiver-searches Whites. The proof of Figueroa’s futile efforts, his waste of scant resources, is in the Hit Rate Disparity. Blacks, in Sacramento, as is the case elsewhere, yield less contraband.

11.  Figueroa is but one of those officers who have had more than 50 Stops in the period examined, just over 37%, who should have had some intervention, for their stop and post-stop actions would have triggered any reasonably constructed early-warning system[6]. The Federal Government’s observation on and in San Francisco, with this regard, has universal application. An officer who has behaved as I have observed and who has been unable to ticket or arrest a single White, should be pursuing another occupation, not bashing heads or bending handcuffed Blacks in half, with a knee place firmly between their shoulder blades.

With dismay and trepidation, bordering on horror, I learned last week that the predator Anthony Figueroa has been returned to patrol duty. He is a threat to public safety, particularly that of Blacks. I cannot allow that threat to public safety to go unchallenged. I do not know exactly what it is that I shall do, but my keyboard shall be much in use.

A report, a work in progress that expands on the above is available for download from my Google Drive at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pALMw3v0UUZD8bE1HKsb51nbjoCZYdie/view?usp=sharing

A report on the Sacramento Police Department, for the period mentioned, is available for download from my Google Drive at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14foNx39BAJ3Plh0rRsurAnBVVD1QhWGh/view?usp=sharing

Finally; I have attempted to obtain the officer names, badge numbers and the decoded value necessary to intelligently examine the stop and post-stop conduct of those involved in the Leslie Mann and Stephon Clarke matters. With respect to Mann, the officers are no longer with the SPD, and there are only two records connected to them. But with respect to the Clarke incident, despite the absence of specific or particular threats, Sacramento has declined to provide information of the cohort connected to the killing of Clarke. This communication though focused on Figueroa tells us many things, but it mostly tells us that Sacramento has long known of its miscreants. Accordingly, I assert the offer to collect more data is a smokescreen, a ruse meant to impose delay; to deflect to beguile us into thinking that more data may mean change. I know better.

Sincerely;

Richard Hylton

San Diego, CA 92129

C.c. Attorney General Bacerra Fax: (916) 323-5341

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[1] The data field OfficerAbra isolates the actual OfficerID. For Figueroa the actual Officer ID is .Only Sacramento’s authorized personnel have the decode data.

[2] In fact, Figueroa did not cite a single White person; neither did he arrest any; no mean feat. Of course, his peculiar prejudiced preferences and tastes caused havoc to my algorithms.

[3] Figueroa was suspended in or around April, 2017.

[4] Somerset v Stewart ; a quotation that does not appear in the final judgment.

[5] To cause to feel angry or excited. See rabble-rouser.

[6] President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report. @ Page 76: “ Nonetheless, the patterns of disparity in post-stop outcomes are consistent with those found for the initial stop decision and warrant further monitoring, investigation, and analysis—possibly by drilling down to the officer or unit level using officer-to-officer comparison (“internal benchmarking”) techniques as part of an early warning approach.”