Blogs Jul 26, 2012 at 6:26 pm

We Should Use Hard Numbers to Hold SPD Accountable for Racial Bias, Not Speculations of Officers' Racism

Dominic Holden
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Comments

1
It's ludicrous that Harrell believes the council, the mayor, and the police department can undertake internal reforms to deal with racial bias when left to their own devices on any kind of reform, those parties brush the problems under the rug and do nothing.

An outside law enforcement actor is the only way we'll potentially see change on racist police conduct.
neo-realist on July 26, 2012 at 7:40 PM Report this
2
Using aggragate statistics regarding stops and arrests in relation to race, ethnicity, and geography will indeed confirm that SPD behavior is disproportionately focused on non-White suspects; but like #1 I don't see how that would fundamentally change police practices. Policing as it is now performed is an essentially reactionary process; a reaction to property crimes, as a means of crowd-control, etc. Maybe I have misread what you explicitly and implicitly state, but I fail to see how a change in statutory semantics will result in concrete changes in how the SPD behaves.
Sean Kinney on July 26, 2012 at 8:14 PM Report this
3
The New York Times posted up the Consent Decree signed in New Orleans two days ago. Page 158 summarizes the "now do this" part DOJ is requiring of NOLA PD. It may be cause for hope regarding Daugaard's well-founded concerns. Check it out: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4…
gloomy gus on July 26, 2012 at 8:24 PM Report this
4
An argument for Federalism.
Sean Kinney on July 26, 2012 at 8:29 PM Report this
5
To me this problem will never go away as long as the current political boundaries of "Seattle" exist.

Seattle city proper is too big and overbearing as a centrist government to match the needs of the individual areas.

South Seattle in particular needs to break off and form its own Government, that reflects its composition and needs.
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 26, 2012 at 9:27 PM Report this
6
Key phrase there - "howing that police practices, for whatever reason, result in a gap between the OFFENDER POPULATION and those actually being arrested..."

If that's the standard, and not a gap between those actually being arrested and the OVERALL population, it's a good point.
on July 26, 2012 at 10:22 PM Report this
7
@#5, right, because their revenue base would be so large, and it would be so much easier to deal with problems.

@Sean Kinney, the problem is that without proper data collection we don't know what needs to be reformed. Is it stops involving jaywalking that escalate to the level of police violence? Is it that certain neighborhoods are racially profiling, whereas others are fine? The data collection allows us to determine what's wrong and how to fix it. Yes, every Seattlite who has focused on this issue has a general idea--but that won't work for an enforceable Consent Decree.
piedradelocura on July 27, 2012 at 2:16 AM Report this

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