POLICE RELEASE USE-OF-FORCE DATA IN PIONEERING MOVE
First generated study suggests city is on even footing
For the first time in a decade, the San Jose Police Department is publicly releasing use-of-force data through a new web portal, inviting residents to do their own research of the violent encounters.
And the first major study performed with the newly sorted data, by portal designer Police Strategies LLC, based in Washington, found no significant racial disparities in how SJPD officers apply force on the city’s streets. Force rates among white, black, Latino and Asian suspects hover between 3 and 4 percent of arrests made involving those groups, all within about 1 percentage point of each other.
That finding, based on use-of-force data culled from 2015 and 2016, was welcome news to Chief Eddie Garcia, who commissioned the study and creation of the online dashboard launched Wednesday.
“We have data that says it’s not a
systemic problem here,” Garcia said. “I’m glad we’re on a positive track. I hope other departments in the county jump on board so we can make transparency and trust a countywide effort.”
The chief headed off any notions he weighted the study in his favor by noting he commissioned a separate study released last year by the University of Texas-El Paso that revealed racially uneven street stops by his officers.
“This is the second time we’ve had someone come from outside to take a look at us, when we’re not in crisis,” he said, alluding to how these accountability studies typically arise after a scandal or federal scrutiny. “Oftentimes we’re looking around the country looking for best practices, but we need to take a look at ourselves and realize that this department and community are doing a good job.”
Mayor Sam Liccardo echoed the sentiment.
“This tool represents our continued commitment to maintain the highest levels of transparency and accountability in our police department,” Liccardo said in a statement.
For Sgt. Paul Kelly, the new finding allows the city to distance itself from a national landscape of police hostility.
“Ever since Ferguson, from my point of view, we continue to fight this false narrative,” he said. “This shows that in San Jose, we should not be painted by a broad brush by a few negative cops.”
Local civil-rights advocates were more tempered but welcomed the comprehensive collection of the data. Until 2007, SJPD published an annual use-of-force report.
“I applaud the chief for wanting to move the needle on transparency with his department,” said Andre Chapman, CEO of Unity Care and co-chair of the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley. “We’re setting a gold standard around the country for how (police) departments should be engaging their communities.”
Chapman sidestepped endorsing the Police Strategies finding of nominal to no racial disparities in SJPD’s use of force.
“I wouldn’t agree with that, because that’s not how the communityfeels, “he said. “I challenge some of the data, some of the methodologies. You’re giving us the information, and we’re beginning to understand what are places for improvement.”
Raj Jayadev, director of police watchdog group Silicon Valley De-Bug, was more direct about his wariness while still lauding the positive development of the new data access as “a move in the right direction.”
“There’s one issue that I think has to be considered. They’re generating
a bunch of data based on a particular input source, and that input source is the police officers’ report,” Jayadev said.
He moored his criticisms on another series of reports from 10 years ago, namely this newspaper’s findings that Latinos were being disproportionately arrested for public intoxication in the downtown entertainment zone, which led to a revamping of police enforcement in the area.
“We went through a period in San Jose where a particular truth was being told at scale and turned out to be invalid because it relied solely on officers’ articulation of events,” he said.
Garcia tried to preach pragmatism in noting
that there is no alternative source for use-of-force data.
“They’re right, it’s coming from police reports. That’s where we’re at. But we also have body cameras that can corroborate much of what the officer’s report says,” he said. “And how else are we supposed to do it?”
Aaron Zisser, San Jose’s independent police auditor, has similar questions about the sources, and suggested that a third party like his office should be able to sample body-camera footage from force incidents, to ensure they align with officer accounts.
“Those use-of-force response reports have a lot of subjectivity,” Zisser said. “But overall, I don’t think you can overstate how significant it is that a large police department like San Jose would make this type and volume of data public.”
The Police Force Analysis System will allow users to drill down any use of force to the granular level, including time, location, type of police call, suspect demographics, threat level, resistance, injury and whether an arrest was made, as well as the officer rank and demographics, amount of force used, justification given, and injury inf licted.
The initial startup costs were $148,000 for analyzing the first three years in the portal, with a recurring annual cost of about $50,000 for data mining and analysis.
Sylvia Perez-MacDonald, director of the Independent Defense Counsel Office, said the new portal has huge potential to improve community trust.
“We can get the police department making decisions and improving with data rather than an emotional hunch,” she said, “we can better inform our community about what’s really happening.”
Garcia welcomes the deluge of attention, and questions, the new portal will generate.
“I’m glad we moved the needle, and we need to continue to work together,” he said. “It’s a great foundation to build from.”
To access the SJPD use of force analysis dashboard and inaugural report, go online to sjpd. org/CrimeStats/ForceAnalysis.asp.