Retired Sheriff’s Captain; Former CA POST Executive Director; Police & Corrections Practices Expert; Public Safety Consultant; Government Relations Strategist...
NBC7 solicited my input on traffic stops and racial bias. I am always thankful when the media provides the opportunity for context in response to allegations of racial bias. All too often, the reporting is one-sided and skewed. I contend that the current R.I.P.A. data collection process is flawed and does not take enough ancillary reasonable cause information into account. As I stated to this reporter, the percentages of racial group populations in comparison to the traffic stop frequencies will never align due to the different variables involved in each encounter. However, my sense is that the media and the R.I.P.A. Board will continue to perpetuate the racism in policing narrative going forward and use this data to lobby for more restrictive laws and policies for traffic/pedestrian stops. I did not offer an opinion about the particular traffic stop they highlighted in this story. As I told the reporter, my sense is there is more to the situation beyond the account provided by the aggrieved violator. The optics are not good, but all the facts must be evaluated before passing judgement about the decisions made by the officers. https://lnkd.in/gbg5fnxe
Well stated Paul. The makeup of a community plays into who is likely to be stopped. I would venture an estimate that during my career, the majority of people I stopped consisted of white people. Why, you ask? Because that was the population of my city. Stopping someone who happened to be a black person was extremely rare. The R.I.P.A. Method of collecting data never takes that into their fact finding, thus the real truth remains hidden.
Thanks Paul, As those of us who worked the streets, managed sworn staff working the streets and led them as administrators, we know that facts matter. As a researcher, I know that numbers never tell the true story or present true facts, only the story the person writing it desires to tell. That is why CHP data is rarely if ever included. But for this of that believe in facts, they don't lie and sometimes we may not like them, but facts are true reality and not just a perceived reality.
Jim Fraser
2mo
Good on you for not commenting on the particular case. I continue to believe that nothing is ever as it seems- there is a lot that doesn’t surface without thorough and unbiased investigation.
Andrew Birozy
2mo
Well said Paul. We might understand each other more if we had open dialogue instead of rushing to judgment based on little to no facts.
Michael McNeill
2mo
Again, well said Paul. Operative language being "all the facts."
Researcher of the 90th Bomb Group (Heavy) and retired police officer
2moMost of the time it is an excuse for bad behavior with the officer most of the time having no clue who is operating when they decide to make a stop. Now since you did not comment on the stop I will. The first clue that the officer might have issues is the smashed window for a failure to make a complete stop. Telling someone to get out of the car is fine but you better have a very good reason other than rolling through a stop sign when someone embarrasses you by telling you no. Resisting arrest for failing to get out of your car. Damn. A lot of traffic stops by myself and my people and not one smashed window. Officer should have given him a ticket and sent him on his way. One stop like this can sour hundreds of others.