Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati Year Three Evaluation Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati Year Three Evaluation Report Terry Schell, Greg Ridgeway, Travis L. Dixon, Susan Turner, K. Jack Riley Sponsored by the City of Cincinnati Safety and Justice A RAND INFRASTRUCTURE, SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM The research described in this report was sponsored by the City of Cincinnati and was conducted under the auspices of the Safety and Justice Program within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE). The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. R® is a registered trademark. © Copyright 2007 RAND Corporation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from RAND. Published 2007 by the RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050 4570 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2665 RAND URL: http://www.rand.org/ To order RAND documents or to obtain additional information, contact Distribution Services: Telephone: (310) 451-7002; Fax: (310) 451-6915; Email: [email protected] Preface This is the third annual report that the RAND Corporation has produced on police-com- munity relations in Cincinnati. The reports are required under RAND’s contract to evaluate whether an agreement on police-community relations in Cincinnati is achieving its goals. The collaborative agreement was reached in 2002 and extended in 2007, when the Cincinnati Police Department joined with other agencies and organizations (collectively referred to here as the parties) to enact a series of reforms and initiatives intended to improve police-community relations in the city. This report should be of interest to policymakers and community members in Cincinnati and elsewhere in Ohio. This report may also prove useful to residents and officials in other jurisdictions in which similar issues are being confronted. The City of Cincinnati funded this project on behalf of the parties to the collaborative agreement. The first and second years’ reports can be found in Riley et al. (2005) and Ridgeway et al. (2006), respectively. Other, recent and related RAND works that may be of interest to readers of this report include the following: • Analysis of Racial Disparities in the New York City Police Department’s Stop, Question, and Frisk Practices (Ridgeway, 2007) • “Assessing the Effect of Race Bias in Post-Traffic Stop Outcomes Using Propensity Scores” (Ridgeway, 2006) • “Testing for Racial Profiling in Traffic Stops from Behind a Veil of Darkness” (Grogger and Ridgeway, 2006) • Race and the Decision to Seek the Death Penalty in Federal Cases (Klein, Berk, and Hick- man, 2006). The RAND Safety and Justice Program This research was conducted under the auspices of the Safety and Justice Program within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE). The mission of ISE is to improve the development, operation, use, and protection of society’s essential physical assets and natural resources and to enhance the related social assets of safety and security of individuals in tran- sit and in their workplaces and communities. Safety and Justice Program research addresses occupational safety, transportation safety, food safety, and public safety—including violence, policing, corrections, substance abuse, and public integrity. iii iv Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati: Year Three Evaluation Report Questions or comments about this report should be sent to the project leader, Jack Riley ([email protected]). Information about the Safety and Justice Program is available online (http://www.rand.org/ise/safety). Inquiries about research projects should be sent to the fol- lowing address: Greg Ridgeway, Acting Director Safety and Justice Program, ISE RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street P.O. Box 2138 Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 310-393-0411, x7734 [email protected] Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figures ........................................................................................................... vii Tables ............................................................................................................ ix Summary ........................................................................................................ xi Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xvii CHaptER ONE Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 The Collaborative Agreement ................................................................................... 1 Evaluation of Progress Toward the Collaborative Agreement’s Goals ..................................... 1 Statistical Compilations ....................................................................................... 2 Traffic-Stop Analysis .......................................................................................... 2 Evaluation of Video and Audio Records .................................................................... 3 Structure of This Report ........................................................................................ 3 CHaptER TWO The Context of Policing in Cincinnati: Crime, Arrests, and Use of Force ........................... 5 Overview .......................................................................................................... 5 Calls for Service and Serious Crimes .......................................................................... 6 Stops, Citations, Arrests, and Reported Crimes .............................................................. 7 Use of Force ...................................................................................................... 10 Summary ......................................................................................................... 19 CHaptER THREE Analysis of Vehicle Stops ..................................................................................... 21 Overview ......................................................................................................... 21 Introduction .................................................................................................... 22 Data .............................................................................................................. 23 Contact Cards ................................................................................................ 23 Stop Location ................................................................................................. 23 Completion Rates and Missing Entries ................................................................... 24 Assessing Racial Disparities in the Decision to Stop, Using a Natural Experiment .................... 25 Methods ....................................................................................................... 27 Results .......................................................................................................... 29 Assessing Racial Disparities in the Decision to Stop, Using Internal Benchmarking ................. 30 Methods ........................................................................................................ 31 v vi Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati: Year Three Evaluation Report Results .......................................................................................................... 33 Discussion .................................................................................................... 34 Assessing Racial Disparities in Post-Stop Outcomes........................................................ 35 Methods ........................................................................................................ 35 Results .......................................................................................................... 39 Hit Rates ....................................................................................................... 45 Analysis of Vortex Officers .................................................................................... 46 CHaptER FouR Analysis of Videotaped Police-Motorist Interactions ................................................... 49 Overview ......................................................................................................... 49 Background ..................................................................................................... 50 Methods .......................................................................................................... 51 Sample of Interactions ........................................................................................ 51 Coding Procedures ........................................................................................... 53 Analysis ....................................................................................................... 54 Results ............................................................................................................ 55 Data Quality .................................................................................................