Does Predictive Policing Encourage Racial Profiling?

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Social Movements Against Racist Police Brutality and Department of Justice Intervention in Prince George's County, Maryland

Racist police brutality has been systemic in Prince George's County, Maryland. The victims include African Americans, the mentally challenged, and immigrant populations, creating a complex and uneven public health impact. Three threads characterize the social movements and intervention since 1970. 

First, a significant demographic shift occurred as African Americans became the majority population in the late 1980s when the first Black county executive was elected in 1994. Despite the change in political leadership, police brutality remained rampant. Lower-income households located close to the District of Columbia and "inside the beltway" experienced the most police brutality. 

In 2001, The Washington Post revealed that between 1990 and 2000, Prince George's police shot and killed more citizens per officer than any of the 50 largest city and county law enforcement agencies in the country, 84 % of whom were black. Of the 147 persons shot during the 1990s, 12 were mentally and/or emotionally disturbed; 6 of these shootings were fatal. 

Second, resistance to police brutality emerged in a variety of political formations throughout the period, especially in the late 1990s. Sustained community pressure prompted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a civil rights investigation of the police department in November 2000. To avoid a potential federal lawsuit, the county leadership negotiated a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the DOJ to enact policy reforms, part of which called for supplementing the departmental mobile crisis team, comprised of mental health care professionals, to respond to all cases involving mentally challenged citizens. 

Third, the incomplete process of change subsequent to the ending of DOJ oversight suggests a continued challenge to social movements opposing police brutality. This study focuses on the effectiveness of the MOA along with the activism of the People's Coalition for Police Accountability (PCPA) in reforming a culture of police brutality. The intensive oversight by the DOJ, combined with engaged resident activism, reduced the incidences of police brutality during the period 2004-2013. 

Since the termination of DOJ oversight, disturbing developments suggest the need for continued and sustained activism. Since 2010, county police officers have fatally shot 21 people, several in questionable circumstances. 

At the same time, the Prince George's Police Department has received more tactical military weaponry than any other jurisdiction in the state of Maryland under the 1033 program of the National Defense Authorization Act.

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By:    Hutto JW Sr1, Green RD2.

• 1Howard University, Washington, DC, USA.
• 2Howard University, Washington, DC, USA. rgreen@howard.edu. 
• J Urban Health. 2016 Feb 16.

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Building on the Evidence: Guiding Policy and Research on Police Encounters with Persons with Mental Illnesses

...During this time of national concern about excessive use of force by police, a range of stakeholders—including communities, federal and state governments, and law enforcement—seek improvements in community partnership, accountability, transparency, and skillful restraint to begin reversing the problems of excessive police use of force, including as they affect persons with mental illnesses. Prevention-oriented policies and programs that offer tools for improving de-escalation of potentially dangerous encounters with persons in a mental-health crisis could help minimize risk for injury during police encounters for all parties involved and reduce the likelihood that force will be needed at all. As an example, a recent trend in state law making broadens police authority to remove guns from persons who are considered to be in danger of harming themselves or others but who have not committed a criminal act and are not prohibited from gun ownership. Connecticut, Indiana, and California are three states with different versions of a law in place to remove guns from potentially dangerous persons. A benefit of this policy approach to managing potential dangerousness among persons in crisis is in removing the focus from mental illnesses per se and placing it instead on demonstrated behaviors by any member of the community that suggest heightened risk. This conceptual and operational shift in focus from mental illnesses to dangerousness is important for reducing stigma around mental illnesses, both in the community and among law enforcement officers.

There has also been increased awareness in law enforcement communities of the need for more in-depth officer training in de-escalation. The New York Times reported on a recent survey conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) that highlighted the tradition of a disproportionate focus on training in use of force rather than de-escalation techniques and estimated the following median number of hours spent in various training areas: firearms = 58 hours, defensive tactics = 49 hours, de-escalation = 8 hours, and crisis intervention = 8 hours (Apuzzo, 2015). PERF asserted that some large police departments support the idea of a new approach to training that focuses more heavily on teaching officers the necessary skills to defuse tense situations and avoid violent confrontations; but other departments are resistant. Persons with mental illnesses would undoubtedly benefit during their encounters with police who had more comprehensive training in de-escalation and potentially reduce their chances not only of injury during those encounters but also of being subject to police use of force at all.

Certain jurisdictions have had strong success in implementing prevention-oriented models that include specialized officer response to persons with mental illnesses like CIT. Other successful additions to the community infrastructure provide officers with an alternative to taking a person in crisis to the emergency department or jail. San Antonio, Texas, paired CIT training with a newly constructed Restoration Center, a facility with a 16-bed psychiatric unit, a medical clinic, and a “sobering room” where police can drop off people who are intoxicated rather than taking them to jail. The city reports related savings for the police department of $600,000 a year in overtime pay alone; undoubtedly, many encounters that would have involved use offorce and possible injury were averted.

Morabito and Socia (2015) also call for policy improvements in consistency, quality, and availability of data on encounters during which police use force and the surrounding circumstances, including measures that thoroughly describe the circumstances of a person’s mental-health crisis. While a range of community and government stakeholders are engaged, now is an especially important time to develop and institute progressive policies in an effort to increase accountability for what takes place during police encounters. New policies that require detailed reporting of police use-of-force incidents would also facilitate further rigorous research on the effectiveness of CIT, preemptive gun seizure laws, and other approaches to mitigating dangerousness in encounters with persons in mental-health crisis. To ensure that new reporting policies are sustainable, however, jurisdictions would need to give careful consideration to issues around their implementation. Challenges to be addressed include the acceptability of such policies among police department leadership and their officers, as well as the feasibility of additional reporting and paperwork for officers and data management for administration.

Morabito and Socia (2015) offer salient new evidence about risk for injury during police encounters involving persons with mental illnesses in which force is used. Their study lays a foundation for further research that should extend to include non-CIT police officers to learn more about both CIT-specific outcomes and any unobserved elevated risk for injury during police encounters with persons with mental illnesses. Policy response to these concerns can begin now, starting with improved reporting on police encounters with persons with mental illnesses and a rigorous focus on building officers’ skills in de-escalation...

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By: Allison G. Robertson, 

Direct correspondence to Allison G. Robertson, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Brightleaf Square, Ste 23B, Durham, NC 27701 (Email:  allison.gilbert@duke.edu).

Allison G. Robertson is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. She received a Ph.D. in health policy and management from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and an MPH in health management and policy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Professor Robertson conducts mental health law, policy, and services research, with a particular focus on the problem of criminal justice involvement among adults with serious mental illnesses. She is currently the principal investigator on a study of gender differences in a statewide jail-diversion program, principal investigator on a study of medication-assisted treatment for justice-involved adults with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and an investigator on two multisite studies on gun control laws, mental illness, and prevention of violence.

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Deaths Resulting from the Use of Firearms by Police Against Motor Vehicles: Study of Cases in Porto, Portugal

Highlights

• Bullets that struck the occupants were FMJ type and exhibited a deformed structure but no significant loss of mass.
• Entry holes in the victim's body were larger than the calibre of bullets.
• Death occurred immediately after the victim was shot only in one case, despite a vital structure has been hit in all cases.

The objective of this study was to investigate the terminal ballistics of police shootings in which the bullets went through any motor vehicle structure before fatally wounding the occupants. 6 cases that occurred in Porto district between 1998 and 2013 were studied. 

The firearms used were 7.65 mm (n = 1) or 9 mm (n = 3) calibre semi-automatic pistols and 9 mm calibre submachine guns (n = 2); the bullets were full metal jacket type. The metal jacket of the collected projectiles was totally or partially destroyed in 3 cases. It exhibited a deformed structure in all cases. The trajectories of the bullets in the vehicles were always more or less linear, even when initial impact was at an oblique angle. The entry holes in the victims' bodies were larger or much larger in size than the calibre of the bullets. They were located, with the exception of one of the cases, in the left half of the body. The trajectories in the victims' bodies were from front to back, in one case, and from back to front in all others. Exit wounds were only found in two cases. Death occurred immediately after the victim was shot only in one case, despite a vital structure has been hit in all cases. 

The cases studied support the idea that the use of firearms against vehicles with the sole intention of immobilisation entails uncontrollable danger to the lives of the occupants, and especially when done by police forces not specifically trained for that purpose. Therefore, such use of firearms should be avoided.

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By:  Rodrigues E1, Faria P2, Santos A3, Fraga S4.

• 1Faculty of Medicine of Porto University, Department of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: ezrodrigues@gmail.com.
• 2Faculty of Law of Catholic University of Portugal, Rua Diogo Botelho, 1327, 4160-005, Porto, Portugal.
• 3National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Department of Pathology - North Branch, Jardim Carrilho Videira, 4050-167, Porto, Portugal; Faculty of Medicine of Porto University, Department of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319, Porto, Portugal; School of Health Sciences of Minho University, Campus Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal; Center of Forensic Sciences, National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213, Coimbra, Portugal.
• 4EPIUnit - Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Rua das Taipas, 135, 4050-600, Porto, Portugal.
• J Forensic Leg Med. 2016 Jan 12;39:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.01.010.  

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Investigating Ferguson and the Militarization of America's Police

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Cultural Competence Training for Law Enforcement Responding to Domestic Violence Emergencies with the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate a training workshop for law enforcement as first responders for the purpose of increasing officers' cultural competency in working with Deaf and hard-of-hearing people (Deaf/HH) during domestic violence (DV) emergencies.

METHOD:

This evaluation assesses the efficacy of a 2-hour training workshop for law enforcement. Thirty-four participants completed questionnaires at pre- and postintervention to assess participants' (1) satisfaction with training; (2) skills in responding to Deaf/HH individual(s) in a DV emergency; (3) attitudes toward the Deaf/HH, including bias recognition, self-assessment of cultural competency, and perceived self-efficacy; and (4) knowledge of communication. Focus groups (FGs) were also conducted (n = 6 for FG1, n = 13 for FG2). SPSS software was used to analyze survey data; principal components analysis was conducted on the survey instruments.

RESULTS:

There were significant differences between pre- and post-tests for several targeted outcomes, including knowledge and perceived self-efficacy. Both survey and FG results demonstrated that participants gained cultural competency skills as indicated by changes in attitudes toward the Deaf/HH, both in DV emergencies and in large-scale emergencies.

CONCLUSION:

Significant differences were evident between pre and posttest results in terms of knowledge and perceived self-efficacy. Nonetheless, survey participants demonstrated a lack of knowledge about policy and the law. Survey findings also suggest that while a onetime training can improve the perceived self-efficacy of participants, shifting attitudes about the capabilities of the Deaf/HH may require different training strategies. FG participants demonstrated a greater awareness of the complexity of working with this population in a DV emergency.

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By:   Engelman A1, Deardorff J2.

• 1California State University, East Bay, CA, USA alina.engelman@csueastbay.edu.
• 2University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. 

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National Trends: Mapping Police Violence

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Police Accountability Tool: Mapping Police Violence

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Police Violence: City Comparison Tool

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Police Violence: State Comparison Tool

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Mapping Police Violence

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Stop, Question, and Complain: Citizen Grievances Against the NYPD and the Opacity of Police Stops Across New York City Precincts, 2007-2013

Data on police stops can be examined to reflect on the relative "opacity" of these encounters and how aggregate patterns on the nature-not just the volume-of reported stops relate to public scrutiny of the police. 

We hypothesize that public scrutiny on police stops is positively related to the prevalence of opaque stop practices across dimensions of "intrusiveness," "rationale," and "setting" derived from agency records. We further argue that this relationship is influenced by neighborhood conditions in the form of concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and heterogeneity. 

To develop these ideas, we draw on a publicly available NYPD dataset on police stops to specify a series of fixed and random effects models that describe variation in recorded stop practices across precincts (N = 74) and overtime (T = 7, 2007-2013). We relate these practices to neighborhood conditions derived from the Census and examine their association with rates of SQF complaints to the CCRB. 

Results show considerable variation in indicators of opacity, particularly across precincts. More importantly, we also find that rates of complaints are higher in precincts that have more vaguely defined, intrusive stops. 

Results also suggest that concentrated disadvantage is independently and positively related with higher rates of public scrutiny of the police.

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By:   Rengifo AF¹, Fowler K².

¹School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington St, Suite 554, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA. arengifo@rutgers.edu.

²School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington St, Suite 554, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA. kurt.fowler@rutgers.edu.

  

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Politics, Police Accountability, and Public Health: Civilian Review in Newark, New Jersey

Police brutality, a longstanding civil rights issue, has returned to the forefront of American public debate. A growing body of public health research shows that excessive use of force by police and racial profiling have adverse effects on health for African Americans and other marginalized groups. Yet, interventions to monitor unlawful policing have been met with fierce opposition at the federal, state, and local levels. 

On April 30, 2015, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey signed an executive order establishing a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to monitor the Newark Police Department (NPD). Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined how advocates and government actors accomplished this recent policy change in the face of police opposition and after a 50-year history of unsuccessful attempts in Newark. 

Drawing on official public documents, news media, and interviews conducted in April and May 2015, I propose that: (1) a Department of Justice investigation of the NPD, (2) the activist background of the Mayor and his relationships with community organizations, and (3) the momentum provided by the national Black Lives Matter movement were pivotal in overcoming political obstacles to reform. Examining the history of CCRB adoption in Newark suggests when and where advocates may intervene to promote policing reforms in other US cities.

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By:   McGregor A1.

• 1Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. aleciam@princeton.edu. 

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