Overall, the data shows that use of force incidents, which police define as everything from verbal commands to firing their gun at someone, have decreased in the last seven years, despite an increase in police responses and arrests.
People of color account for 23 percent of police interactions where force was used but they are only 13 percent of the population — based on 2010 U.S. Census figures — according to presentation by Eric Fowler, a crime analyst for the department.
When the sample is limited to just people who were arrested, and not the population as a whole, people of color are still overrepresented, Fowler said, but only by a margin of 2 percent instead of 10 percent.
People of color are also 37 percent more likely to have a gun pointed at them than a white person, even though they are less likely to actively resist an officer, the data shows.
Fowler presented the data Wednesday to the Community Council of Accountability with Law Enforcement, a group that meets regularly to connect community members with police. The data is also posted online.
While police record race in multiple categories, including white, black, hispanic and Asian, the data Fowler presented used only white and nonwhite or people of color. That likely “dilutes dramatic disparities for African Americans,” said Robert Appel, a civil rights attorney.
Others expressed concern that the data comes from police reports and relies on officers divulging when and how much force they used as well as relying on the officer’s perception of a person’s race.
Despite shortcomings, Christine Longmore, one of the group’s organizers, said she believes the data is useful.
“This is a step in the direction of transparency. It’s a huge opportunity for community input and community education,” said Longmore, who is also a police commissioner.
“I think it’s also really helpful, as the race data on traffic stops was, in putting to bed the perception versus reality,” Longmore added, saying that allegations of police discrimination from people of color can no longer be dismissed as anecdotal.
People’s experience of police bias are now backed up by data gathered by police, she said, which advances a conversation that had stalled in recent years.
The data also highlights more points of discretion where an officer’s implicit bias can impact the outcome of a situation with serious consequences, Longmore said. The criminal justice system as a whole is replete with similar points of individual discretion, she said.
During his presentation, Fowler said the large disparity in when officers draw their guns on a suspect can be explained in part because police are more likely to encounter people of color when “the safety risk of the situation is such that officers may have their guns unholstered or drawn to begin with,” such as when executing search warrants, conducting felony traffic stops or responding to burglaries.
Fowler did not present figures supporting that conclusion, but said he planned to include that level of detail in a forthcoming report.
Deputy Chief Shawn Burke gave an example that he said is “pretty descriptive of what we see in the data set,” where officers executed a search warrant at a South Burlington hotel Tuesday night as part of a drug investigation.
“In that instance you have four officers with four guns at one doorway. They open the doorway. They encounter two men of color from the greater Boston area,” who were then arrested on drug charges, Burke said.
That gets reported as a use of force incident where the officers encountered “non-resistance,” as opposed to “active physical resistance,” Fowler said. That is partly why people of color are so much more likely to have a gun pointed at them even though they’re less likely to physically resist arrest, they said.
However, even when Fowler attempted to control for different types of incidents that are more likely to involve one racial group over another, for instance white people are more likely to be publicly intoxicated, Fowler’s analysis still found greater use of force with people of color — though not by a statistically significant margin, he said.
Mayor Miro Weinberger applauded police for making the use of force data publicly available. In a statement, he said it demonstrates their commitment to building trust through transparency.
“I am encouraged that the report documents declining use of force events even as police calls and arrests are rising, suggesting that our efforts to evolve our use of force policies over the past year are having a positive impact,” Weinberger said.
“The data suggests, however, that people of color are more likely to be encountered in the types of calls where officers believe it is prudent to point their firearms, such as search warrants and burglaries. This finding requires the type of deep and thorough investigation called for by any such disparate impact of policing by race. The Burlington Police are committed to this work,” the mayor added.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the 2010 U.S. Census data used for racial population data underrepresented the racial disparities in use of force. The 2010 U.S. Census data could actually make the disparities more pronounced, as Burlington has become more diverse in the last seven years.
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