[Peace] CUCPJ recommendations to stop racial profiling in traffic stops

[Brian Dolinar]

Folks - CUCPJ will be delivering our recommendations to stop racial
profiling in Urbana. We'll be delivering to city council tonight, Monday,
at 7pm. The city building is at 400 S. Vine St. Come out to show your
support!

BD


Preface:
CU Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ) applauds the City Council’s
effort to understand and respond to the traffic stop racial disparities
documented by both IDOT data and the Traffic Stop Data Task Force’s
statistical analysis.  The Task Force report’s greatest service to the
community may be its educational value.

There is much for the City Council, UPD, and community to learn and
understand. After fifteen months of study, the recommendations of the Task
Force serve as a starting point for substantive and concrete action.  CUCPJ
urges the Council to plan how the stated recommendations can be implemented
and provide a timeline for progress.

Although the Report’s recommendations are helpful and informative, CUCPJ
believes several observations and meaningful recommendations need more
attention.  They are included below.  We encourage the Council to make them
part of its overall discussion of the Task Force report.

CUCPJ Recommendations:
1. Reduce annual traffic stop numbers and citation rates.
Many departments have significantly lower stop numbers and citation rates
without any detrimental effect to public safety.  Two examples are
Danville’s 2014 stop number of 808 compared to Urbana’s 4205, and
Bloomington’s citation rate of 30% compared to Urbana’s 55%.  Intelligently
lowering these two numbers twenty to thirty percent would reduce the impact
of racial disparities and improve police/community relations.

2. Eliminate all searches conducted as part of a traffic stop unless there
is clear suspicion of a serious crime.
As part of this process, officers must inform drivers of their right to
refuse a search and obtain a voluntary signature before conducting a
consent search.  If the officer conducts a search, a statement explaining
the reason for the search must be recorded on the traffic ticket.

3. Eliminate or revise any city ordinances enforced as part of traffic
stops that no longer serve a viable public safety purpose or appear to be
racially biased in its enforcement.
One obvious ordinance is “Operating a Vehicle with Loud System”.  Vol. II,
Table 16 on page 38 of the Task Force report identifies it as the seventh
highest charge (452) for African-American drivers. This ordinance is almost
exclusively used against African-American drivers and appears to be
culturally and racially biased in its enforcement.

4. Study the totality of the impact and effectiveness of the “investigatory
stop” as a strategic policing tactic.
Following Recommendations 1.1 and 2.4, the Council should give direction to
the UPD to begin the process of collecting these data in a public
reportable format.  These data are critical for follow-up analysis and
informed decision-making by future groups appointed by the city council.

5. Create a new commission to review traffic stop data after it is made
publicly available.
In support of Recommendation 2.3, the commission should be composed of a
city council member, UPD representative, former member of the Traffic Stop
Task Force, and two members of the Urbana community familiar with the Task
Force report. They will report to the Council whether progress is being
made in reducing racial disparities in traffic stops.  The commission may
also make recommendations to the City Council.

6. Support Recommendation 3.4 calling for a moratorium on issuing of
citations for cannabis possession when it is discovered in the course of
traffic stops.
Citation for minor possession of cannabis serves little public utility, is
often racially enforced, and places undue economic hardship on many
citizens.

-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
briandolinar.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20151207/977eab42/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: cucpj traffic stop report statement.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 32600 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20151207/977eab42/attachment.docx>