Mill Valley police close to tracking stop and arrest data - Marin Independent Journal

paksijenong.blogspot.com

Spurred by social activists, Mill Valley plans to collect and report police stop and arrest data as soon as June in a step toward greater transparency and equity.

At a recent City Council meeting, police Chief Richard Navarro said the police department is running ahead of other agencies in Marin in implementing mandates of the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). The act requires law enforcement agencies in the state to start collecting the data by January and reporting it to the attorney general by April 2023.

Mill Valley, Tiburon and Belvedere police use a computer-aided dispatch system, or CAD, operated through the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. Navarro said the Tiburon and Belvedere departments already have an online dashboard with RIPA data, but they lack a platform to automatically populate and report data to the state.

“They do not have a reporting piece that was going to send that information to the Department of Justice,” said Navarro, a former sheriff’s department captain for 12 years. “And that’s the big piece, right? That’s how we want to be able to analyze and track and really examine the data that we’re pushing out.”

Mill Valley police found a RIPA compliance application called RIPALog that expedites data reporting to the state, according to a report by Navarro. The contract and installation cost $9,600, and the annual maintenance cost is $3,600, but the city might be reimbursed through the State Controller’s Office, according to the report.

Tammy Edmondson, a member of Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment, said the group is “pleased to see the department’s efforts to get the RIPA data collection off the ground six months in advance of the statutory deadline.”

“These data are going to be valuable for measuring and addressing racial disparities in law enforcement in our city,” Edmondson said.

Navarro’s report also included 12 recommendations influenced by Edmondson’s group, which consists of former Diversity Equity and Inclusion Task Force members and Mill Valley Community Action Network members.

The recommendations include creating a need-based community service model; analyzing the feasibility of a police oversight committee; and examining the police budget.

Mill Valley’s 22-officer police department has an annual budget of about $7.1 million for a city of about 15,000 people. By comparison, Corte Madera, Larkspur and San Anselmo pay an average of about $4 million each to fund the joint-powers Central Marin Police Authority.

Another recommendation is preventing “bias by proxy,” which is when a someone calls police to handle a complaint that it itself biased, according to the staff report.

“Unfortunately, in some of these recommendations, in the work plan, the purpose got obscured,” Edmondson said. “As a result, the chief’s update didn’t address the central import of these recommendations, which goes to the heart of what brought us here, the epidemic of police violence and killings of Black people in the country.”

Damian Morgan, board chairman of the Marin City Community Service District, said he’s been pulled over by police in Mill Valley multiple times. He also noted he was offended by a comment made by Councilman Jim Wickham, who said the city was dubbed racist “out of the blue.”

“You know, racism comes in many forms,” Morgan said during the public comment period. “Health care, education, economics, housing, environmental and Mill Valley is guilty of all on all fronts. … How dare you say that racism is ‘out of the blue’ as if it’s a myth?”

Wickham said he didn’t intend to downplay racism.

“I truly apologize if you believe I have,” he said. “You and I both know it’s an ongoing issue that’s going to take some time to eliminate. I wholeheartedly recognize the issues and inequities from the past and injustices today.”

Linn Walsh, a city official, said the next review of the diversity panel’s 30 recommendations is set for May 17. On June 21 it will review recommendations on affordable housing.

Adblock test (Why?)

"Stop" - Google News
May 09, 2021 at 07:49AM
https://ift.tt/3fb0Fvk

Mill Valley police close to tracking stop and arrest data - Marin Independent Journal
"Stop" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KQiYae
https://ift.tt/2WhNuz0

Bagikan Berita Ini