For Immediate Release
May 10, 2021
For information contact: Steve Gold, [email protected]
HUNTINGTON WOODS COMMUNITY GROUP RELEASES
REPORT ON POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
The Huntington Woods Peace, Citizenship, and Education Project (the “Peace Group”) has released a report on the policies and practices regarding bias in policing and use of force in the Huntington Woods Department of Public Safety (“DPS”). The report found much good in the DPS’ policies, which are consistent with the high standards of the national police accrediting agency, CALEA, but it also raised the possibility of implicit bias influencing police practices. The conclusions were based on an exhaustive study of available data as well as data provided by the city and the police department.
The final report includes a series of recommendations to bring the community and the police department closer together and to improve policies and practices of the department.
“Several of us were approached independently by Huntington Woods residents following the murder of George Floyd in 2020,” said Mary Murphy, co-chairperson of the Peace Group’s Steering Committee. “They asked if we knew what our own police department was doing. Those inquiries made us realize we knew nothing about the policies and practices of the city’s police department and it would be a service to the community to review these practices.”
The Steering Committee agreed that an inquiry into the DPS was consistent with the mission of the Peace Group, and asked Steve Gold, another Steering Committee member, to take on the task. “I didn’t know much about law enforcement,” Gold said, “but I have long experience in government administration, and I know how to collect and analyze data. Also, I’m well aware that the Huntington Woods population has always been nearly 100% White. When the Black Lives Matters protests sprang up all over the country, the Peace Group decided we ought to know what was happening in our own city.”
The “Inquiry,” as it was called, used publicly available data from the DPS website and acquired additional data, including the written policies of the DPS and the standards used by CALEA, through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests. Gold stated “We learned quickly that criminology researchers say that racial disparities in traffic stops aren’t the best way to measure police bias. Thick books have been written – I had to read some of them! - on all the confounding factors. So we had to look further.”
Review of sources such as citizen complaints, employee grievances, and lawsuits against the city produced very little evidence of either outright bias or excessive use of force on the part of Huntington Woods officers. But careful analysis of use of force reports - the forms officers must fill out after any sort of force is used on a citizen, and which include written field narratives - suggested that problems might still exist.
“DPS policies define pointing a gun at someone a use of “deadly force,” said Gold, “and they strictly limit the circumstances under which deadly force may be used. We found a number of cases where guns were pointed at both Black and White citizens that didn’t seem to fit those limited circumstances. Also, analysis of use of force reports by race of the person that force was used on suggested that White people in those encounters displayed greater resistance to police than Black people did, but that Black people, despite putting up less resistance than White people, were managed with greater force. The numbers were too small for rigorous statistical testing, but they did suggest that problem.Implicit bias could be one explanation.”
While praising the DPS for satisfying CALEA accreditation standards, the Inquiry also includes nearly 50 recommendations for bringing the DPS and the community closer together, and for improving DPS policies and practices.
Copies of the Inquiry are available by sending an empty email with the word “Inquiry” in the subject line to [email protected].
May 10, 2021
For information contact: Steve Gold, [email protected]
HUNTINGTON WOODS COMMUNITY GROUP RELEASES
REPORT ON POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
The Huntington Woods Peace, Citizenship, and Education Project (the “Peace Group”) has released a report on the policies and practices regarding bias in policing and use of force in the Huntington Woods Department of Public Safety (“DPS”). The report found much good in the DPS’ policies, which are consistent with the high standards of the national police accrediting agency, CALEA, but it also raised the possibility of implicit bias influencing police practices. The conclusions were based on an exhaustive study of available data as well as data provided by the city and the police department.
The final report includes a series of recommendations to bring the community and the police department closer together and to improve policies and practices of the department.
“Several of us were approached independently by Huntington Woods residents following the murder of George Floyd in 2020,” said Mary Murphy, co-chairperson of the Peace Group’s Steering Committee. “They asked if we knew what our own police department was doing. Those inquiries made us realize we knew nothing about the policies and practices of the city’s police department and it would be a service to the community to review these practices.”
The Steering Committee agreed that an inquiry into the DPS was consistent with the mission of the Peace Group, and asked Steve Gold, another Steering Committee member, to take on the task. “I didn’t know much about law enforcement,” Gold said, “but I have long experience in government administration, and I know how to collect and analyze data. Also, I’m well aware that the Huntington Woods population has always been nearly 100% White. When the Black Lives Matters protests sprang up all over the country, the Peace Group decided we ought to know what was happening in our own city.”
The “Inquiry,” as it was called, used publicly available data from the DPS website and acquired additional data, including the written policies of the DPS and the standards used by CALEA, through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests. Gold stated “We learned quickly that criminology researchers say that racial disparities in traffic stops aren’t the best way to measure police bias. Thick books have been written – I had to read some of them! - on all the confounding factors. So we had to look further.”
Review of sources such as citizen complaints, employee grievances, and lawsuits against the city produced very little evidence of either outright bias or excessive use of force on the part of Huntington Woods officers. But careful analysis of use of force reports - the forms officers must fill out after any sort of force is used on a citizen, and which include written field narratives - suggested that problems might still exist.
“DPS policies define pointing a gun at someone a use of “deadly force,” said Gold, “and they strictly limit the circumstances under which deadly force may be used. We found a number of cases where guns were pointed at both Black and White citizens that didn’t seem to fit those limited circumstances. Also, analysis of use of force reports by race of the person that force was used on suggested that White people in those encounters displayed greater resistance to police than Black people did, but that Black people, despite putting up less resistance than White people, were managed with greater force. The numbers were too small for rigorous statistical testing, but they did suggest that problem.Implicit bias could be one explanation.”
While praising the DPS for satisfying CALEA accreditation standards, the Inquiry also includes nearly 50 recommendations for bringing the DPS and the community closer together, and for improving DPS policies and practices.
Copies of the Inquiry are available by sending an empty email with the word “Inquiry” in the subject line to [email protected].