Arrests fall; racial disparities remain
Statewide analysis shows a sharp decline since 1989
California arrest rates have plummeted to numbers not seen in decades, but a stark racial disparity remains in place as black people were still three times as likely as whites to be arrested in 2016, according to a new report.
Researchers for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute found that African Americans are highly overrepresented in arrests, accounting for 16.3 percent of those taken into custody in 2016 while making up just 5.7 percent of the overall population. White people made up 36 percent of arrests and 38.1 percent of the population, and Latinos represented 39 percent of the population and 41 percent of arrests.
The study, “New Insights Into California Arrests,” was released Monday and is the first analysis of its kind, according to researchers who tracked statewide arrest trends from 1980 to 2016. The institute found that overall arrest rates in California were lower in 2016 than any other year in the study and have dropped by more than half since peaking in 1989, according to arrests and citations that law enforcement agencies report monthly to the California Department of Justice.
The report is the first of a two-part project that will be completed over two years, said co-author Magnus Lofstrom.
“I think it forces us to take a closer look at this issue — what we can do to further decrease the disparities that remain despite the improvements that
we’ve seen in the last few decades,” he said.
The gulf between white and black arrest rates has narrowed slightly in recent years — black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested than whites in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, racial disparities between white and Latino arrests have closed almost entirely in the last quarter century. Latinos were arrested 1.8 times as often as whites in the early 1990s, and 1.1 times as often in 2016.
While the first piece of the project delivers trends on raw, long-term data, the second will explore how factors like crime rates, economic conditions and policing policies contribute to arrest trends.
The data between whites and blacks was relatively consistent across jurisdictions, the researchers noted. The arrest rate of black people is at least double that of whites in 45 of the 49 counties examined, the study notes.
Ron Lawrence, 1st vice president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said the racial arrest data doesn’t show the full picture. The report includes no distinction between an arrest that resulted from proactive contact like a traffic or pedestrian stop, and one that was generated by a call for service.
Police have no say in who calls 911 for help, “whereas if it’s a proactive arrest they have a lot of discretion,” said Lawrence, who is also the chief of police in Citrus Heights (Sacramento County) and was on the advisory committee for the study. “This report doesn’t delve into that area; it’s really unfortunate. That would tell a much more accurate story.”
“The good news is that it appears that gap is closing,” he added.
California has embraced several criminal justice policies that may have helped move the needle. A study released in January found that racial disparities in the criminal justice system narrowed following the passage of Proposition 47, which reduced some nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors.
Criminal justice reform advocates say it’s difficult to trace the disparities to a single cause, but say many issues that are currently handled by police could be better served by community organizations.
“I think we as a state have invested in criminalization as the go-to response to a host of social issues, from drug use and abuse to homelessness to school discipline,” said Zachary Norris, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
A heavy officer presence “contributes to the criminalization and over-policing of black and brown people,” he said.
Some of the people arrested could benefit from proven, community-based solutions, Norris said. He pointed to restorative justice efforts in schools as alternatives to suspension, and “violence interruption” programs like in Richmond, which pays people who are prone to violence to act as ambassadors and stay out of trouble.
“It’s a win-win in terms of community safety,” Norris said. “So let’s not wring our hands and say we can’t do anything about it.”
Law-enforcement agencies reported fewer arrests in 2016 than any other year since the data set began in 1980. It dropped 58 percent from its peak in 1989, from 8,188 arrests per 100,000 residents to 3,428 arrests per 100,000 residents.
Researchers point to falling arrest rates of juveniles and young adults as the primary driver for the overall decline. The arrest rate for those 17 or younger dropped by 84 percent between 1980 and 2016, and by 63 percent for adults between 18 and 24 during that same time period.
There’s one major demographic, however, that has fared worse in recent years. Women, who in the early 1980s made up about 14 percent of all arrests, now account for about a quarter. Violent felony arrests declined 37 percent for men and increased by 62 percent for women, while lowerlevel arrests dropped by 25 percent for men but increased by 67 percent for women.
The study additionally compared county-by-county data, and found that more urban, populous counties tended to have lower arrest rates than their rural counterparts. Riverside, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties had the lowest arrest rates, while Lake, Siskiyou and Shasta counties had the highest.