State orders police to collect profiling data
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The Northeastern study, released Tuesday, was commissioned four years ago by
the Legislature and included 366 departments -- from cities and towns and the
state police, to university, MBTA and Amtrak police agencies. Just 92 got a
passing grade, the largest of which was
Public Safety Secretary Edward A. Flynn warned against
condemning the departments that failed until more information can be gathered
on the disparities.
"We are not today finding any agency guilty of having engaged in racial profiling," he said. "Data collection is not punishment."
Flynn said requiring the agencies that showed disparities to collect more
data will provide a clearer picture of racial profiling in
"Every community deserves an explanation from its police department on how it uses its authority, particularly its discretionary authority," Flynn said.
Bishop Filipe Teixeira, a Catholic bishop from
"We do have bad apples in the police departments," Teixeira said. "We have enough data. Let's get into action."
Northeastern used four statistical tests in analyzing 1.6 million traffic citations issued between April 1, 2001, and June 30, 2003: ticketing resident minorities disproportionately more than whites; ticketing all minorities disproportionately more than whites; searching minorities more often than whites; and issuing warnings to whites more often than minorities.
According to the study, 15 police departments failed all four tests, 42
failed three tests, 87 failed two tests and 105 failed one. Among those that
failed all four were
The Executive Office of Public Safety will use $1 million in grant money over the next six months to set up a uniform system for all police departments to report their traffic stops, including those that do not result in any citations or written warnings. That information will be gathered over another year, then analyzed again.
Jack Collins, general counsel for the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police
Association, said the added paperwork is a "witch hunt" and
unnecessary. He said
"We should acknowledge that there is a problem and go about to fix it not to continue to point fingers," he said.
But not all chiefs balked at being asked to do more paperwork.
"If there is a perception or a reality that we're profiling, we need to address it head-on," said Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole.
Flynn noted that in some communities, disparities can be explained based on community expectations and police strategies.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts called on the Legislature to add more teeth to the current law, which provides no sanctions for police agencies that engage in racial profiling.
"There's a lot of talk about training, but training without accountability is really meaningless," executive director Carol V. Rose said.
Police departments can appeal Flynn's ruling to collect more data to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.
Flynn said the results of this study are critical because the most important ingredient for successful policing is community trust and confidence.
"It's clear that community confidence, in some of our minority communities particularly, has been undermined because of concerns about biased policing or unfair use of discretion," Flynn said.
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