LAPD to Test for Racial Profiling

After years of resisting, the Los Angeles Police Department will start collecting data in three weeks to determine whether officers are engaging in racial profiling, according to a confidential report on the city’s compliance with a federal consent decree.

Los Angeles also expects to spend up to $20 million this fiscal year to comply with provisions of the decree, which calls on the LAPD to implement reforms.

The city’s legal team on Monday plans to release its first comprehensive analysis of the LAPD’s reform efforts since the decree was finalized in June by a federal judge. According to a confidential preliminary report, city officials say they are on track in implementing most of the reforms outlined in the agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I think internally, the Police Department is, I believe, putting the personnel together who seem serious about this,” Mayor James Hahn said in an interview Friday.

Los Angeles was forced last year to enter into the consent decree after the Justice Department concluded, as the Rampart scandal was unfolding, that the LAPD had been engaging in a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations for years.

In addition to determining the extent of racial profiling by LAPD officers, the department must also install a computerized system to track performance evaluations, complaints, disciplinary actions and other data on officers.

The city expects to spend $4 million this fiscal year to collect racial data on all traffic and pedestrian stops. Another $12 million will be spent on the computer system, according to the city’s 62-page report to U.S. District Judge Gary Feess.

Hahn said the system for tracking racial profiling may take some time to master but that in the end, it will be an important tool.

“Anything like that, there will be some bugs at first,” he said. “We need to begin to get that system in place. That’s going to be very useful for the department.”

Starting Nov. 1, officers will be required to fill out a form citing the “apparent” age and race of people subjected to all vehicle and pedestrian stops. The objective is to make sure that police officers are not targeting people based only on their ethnicity, officials said.

“The only way to stop racial profiling is by capturing data to provide evidence that such is the case,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “This is fundamentally important.”

The data will then be turned over to a private firm for analysis before it is posted on the Internet for public review. Eventually, the city hopes to issue hand-held computerized devices--instead of paper forms--to record the information on people who are stopped.

Although the LAPD has strenuously objected to collecting racial data in the past, officials now realize they have no choice but to comply with the decree.

“There are always initial reservations,” said LAPD Sgt. Catherine Tana, who is working on decree compliance. “In the scheme of things, when given a task, the Police Department puts its foot forward to meet the requirements.”

Although city officials have given the LAPD high marks in its efforts in recent weeks to implement the provisions of the agreement, the real test will come in coming months.

“For the most part, the rubber has yet to really meet the road,” Ridley-Thomas said. “The next six months will be telling.” He added: “We are still waiting for the breakthrough we had hoped for. When it comes to reform, the department is inherently inert.”