|
Police Stop Data
Issue |
||
|
What’s in the water—Police stop practices-- Last
summer, Mujeres
Unidas held a skill building session with a Human
Rights Attorney. As the leaders in Mujeres addressed community
issues, there was lively discussion on the problems the Latino
community was
having with police stopping them, their family members and community
members
without cause or reason. This precipitated
some research by PEPP staff. Looking back
a few years, following the Civil Rights report of 2001, a study of
police traffic stops from 2002 was released and brought forth publicly
in We were led to believe that the
Moorhead Police department chose to collect data for an additional
two-years. This was what we thought, based on statements
made by Officer Tory Jacobson in May of 2006. However, this data and a report
had never been released to the public prior to early February 2008. The
2002 study was used in a statewide report that was given to the
Minnesota State Legislature in the fall of 2003 by the Council on Crime
and Justice. The report authors were not
as forgiving as Hansel and went on to focus on The first official request for the
continued data related to traffice stops was made in October of 2007. On
Thursday February 7, a report covering data from 2004 was released
and we were told there was no data collected in 2003. Our plan is to move forward
on bringing these issues into the public areana. We plan to
host a series of town hall
meetings dealing with police stop practices, follow the recommendations
of the legislative report and develop community based solutions in
Moorhead that impact probable cause, police stops and department
accountability to the public. We are
hosting bi-weekly organizational meetings and in
addition to PEPP, many local organizations
will be invited to the table and after an initial briefing all will be
asked to get Board endorsement for official representation within this
committee. The group will explore and
develop several strategies and will have a public dialog of what the
police
stop data shows and we will continue to work on obtaining the
release of the 2003 and
2004 traffic stop data and report. The
series of town hall forums will be held in the
spring, summer and fall. The town
halls will be open to the public and focused on involving communities
of color affected by the traffic stop data. Once
and if released, the group will also seek additional analysis of the
2003 and 2004 data and will produce this information as a report and
with recommendations in the late fall of 2008. There will be efforts to
collect testimony and design solutions to the problems highlighted
through these town hall meetings. The
group will
present community recommendations to the Moorhead City Council at a
later date. Follow up to the
recommendations will be taken on by the groups involved throughout this
project. Links
of Interest
|
|
~
Current
News ~
 February Human Rights Commission Meeting Police chief opens door to criticism Benny Polacca The Forum - 02/27/2008--Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinger said he is open to making himself and other police officials available to discuss problems and complaints with his department. Ebinger
told the Moorhead Human Rights Commission Tuesday night he and other
department officials are working on better ways to handle complaints
from residents who feel a police officer treated them unfairly. HPR Article-- Ebinger: Innocent Until Proven Guilty Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinger spoke to the Moorhead Human Rights Commission Tuesday to address escalating concerns on racial profiling and police accountability. His presence was well received in the first of what could be many community dialogues on the subject. Fargo Forum Article-- Race report ignored? Kim Winnegge-- Sunday, February 24, 2008--It all happened on a muggy Fourth of July night in 1998. The sky was hazy near Romkey Park in Moorhead with the aftermath of spent fireworks. Red-hot charcoal turned to ash in barbecue grills, as people began to pack up their belongings and call it a night. Continue Reading Article HPR Opinion- Our
Opinion: Racial Profiling-- Shades of Profiling
A few weeks ago we ran a story about Moorhead’s chief of police withholding public information in the form of a traffic stop data report (“Our Lips are Sealed” – Jan. 31 HPR). In it, we discussed some findings from the 2002 Moorhead Traffic Stop Data Report (a.k.a. 2003 Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling Report: Moorhead). We also discussed public sentiment toward the seemingly impossible task of retrieving any of the follow-up data we knew to exist. Shortly after running that article, the Moorhead Police
Department
finally came forward with the 2004 Traffic Stop Data Report. In the
2002 report, the notion of racial profiling was brushed aside under the
pretext that the study was flawed and needed further research. The
findings of the 2004 report, however, make the notion of racial
profiling hard to ignore. "Pullover arrest rate higher for Indians" Kim Winnegge, The Forum Published Friday, February 08, 2008 A 2004 Moorhead traffic stop study showed that American Indians were almost 20 percent more likely to be arrested than other drivers stopped by police. Continue Reading What are the Forum Readers Saying about these issues on the Forum Blogs? --Judge for yourself-- What are your thoughts about the study and results? (Blog on in-forum) Our Lips Are Sealed: Whatever Happened to the Moorhead Traffic Stop Data? HPR Article By Zach Kobrinsky on January 31, 2008 (Cover) Mark Hansel is a professor at MSUM. He is middle-aged and he is white. Near Mark sits Muhammad. Muhammad is an MSUM student and has been a member of our community since age 11. Muhammad is Black, and he is almost six times more likely to be pulled over in Moorhead than Mark. Cindy is a woman in her mid-30s. She is a paralegal, has two kids, and is Hispanic. Cindy is 70 percent more likely to be pulled over than Mark. These were some of the findings of the 2002 Traffic Stop report by Mark. Needless to say, he was the center of attention at the Traffic Stop Data Group meeting Wednesday at PEPP (People Escaping Poverty Project) in Moorhead. Continue reading Our Lips Are Sealed: Whatever Happened to the Moorhead Traffic Stop Data? The Study Breaking
News--Just Released, The Latest Study-- Traffic Stops in Moorhead,
MN--2004 Past News from
2003 Continue reading the article Profiling studies
wanted More
from Tory Jacobson --(Rights
Stuff-May 2006)
|
