Demographic Disparity Analysis of Law Enforcement Data from the Spokane Police Department January 11, 2021 Police Strategies LLC www.policestrategies.com This study was funded by the Spokane Police Department. This research was conducted independently, and the findings and recommendations presented within this report are from the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or opinions of the Spokane Police Department or the City of Spokane. The authors wish to thank Chief Craig Meidl, Assistant Chief Justin Lundgren, Jacqui MacConnell, Shawna Ernst, and Kathy Armstrong for providing the information and data needed to conduct this study. Please direct questions regarding this report to Bob Scales, CEO, Police Strategies LLC, 13197 N Madison Ave NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110; Phone: (206) 915-8683; Email: [email protected] ABOUT THE AUTHORS Police Strategies LLC is a Washington State based company that was formed in February 2015. The company was built by law enforcement professionals, attorneys, and academics with the primary goal of helping police departments use their own incident reports to make data-driven decisions and develop evidence-based best practices. The company’s three partners are all former employees of the Seattle Police Department and were directly involved with the Department of Justice’s pattern or practice investigation of the department in 2011 as well as the federal consent decree that followed. The partners took the lessons learned from that experience and now provide other police departments with the tools they need to monitor their use of force incidents, identify high risk behavior, and evaluate the outcomes of any reforms that are implemented. The company has a partnership with the Center for the Study of Crime and Justice at Seattle University to assist in the analysis of the data and conduct academic research. Police Strategies LLC has been working with the Spokane Ombudsman to analyze the last seven years of use of force reports from the Spokane Police Department. This database contains detailed information on 736 use of force incidents and some of that data is available to the public through interactive dashboards. Our team has more than 20 years of experience examining issues of racial disparity in policing and the criminal justice system. These projects included working with the Seattle City Council’s Racial Profiling Task Force, developing a biennial Police-Public Contact Survey for the City of Seattle, conducting independent research on racial disparities observed in open air drug markets, and drafting policies to prohibit racial profiling by police officers. © 2021 Police Strategies LLC 1 Contents Figures ................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Tables .................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 12 Summary of the Results ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Data Used ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Key Findings .................................................................................................................................................... 19 Reported Crime Suspects Compared to the Spokane Population .............................................................. 19 Police Stops Compared to Reported Crime Suspects ................................................................................. 19 Arrests Compared to Stops ......................................................................................................................... 20 Uses of Force Compared to Arrests ............................................................................................................ 20 Consent Searches Made After a Traffic Stop .............................................................................................. 21 Searches for Officer Safety Made After a Traffic Stop ................................................................................ 21 Key Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 22 Data Collection Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 24 Dashboards and Reporting ............................................................................................................................. 24 Analysis & Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 25 Disparities in Reported Crimes ................................................................................................................... 26 Disparities in Police Stops ........................................................................................................................... 27 Disparities in Arrests ................................................................................................................................... 27 Disparities in Uses of Force ......................................................................................................................... 28 Disparities in Consent Searches and Searches for Officer Safety During Traffic Stops............................... 28 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 30 Why Study Racial Disparities in Policing? ....................................................................................................... 30 Policing Reform in the 21st Century ................................................................................................................ 34 Background for this Study ............................................................................................................................... 38 Research Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 41 A New Framework for Examining Racial Disparities in Policing ...................................................................... 41 Government ................................................................................................................................................ 42 Community ................................................................................................................................................. 43 Police Department ...................................................................................................................................... 43 Individual Community Members ................................................................................................................ 44 © 2021 Police Strategies LLC 2 Police Officers ............................................................................................................................................. 44 Officer-Civilian Interactions ........................................................................................................................ 44 Police Investigation ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Final Law Enforcement Action .................................................................................................................... 45 Criminal Justice System ............................................................................................................................... 46 Quantity of Policing vs Quality of Policing ...................................................................................................... 46 Procedural Justice ........................................................................................................................................... 50 Discretion vs Discrimination ........................................................................................................................... 50 Benchmarking ................................................................................................................................................. 52 Comparing Perceptions of Race ...................................................................................................................... 54 Legal Framework for Policing .......................................................................................................................... 55 Reported Crimes Compared to the Population .................................................................................................. 58 NIBRS Reported Crimes in Washington State ................................................................................................. 58 Reported Crimes - Risk Ratio Analysis ...........................................................................................................