California Law Enforcement Agencies to Collect Racial Data During Stops

Law enforcement officers in California may soon be recording the ethnicity of people they stop, according to regulations announced this week by State Attorney General Kamala Harris.
The measure is part of approved Assembly Bill AB-953, aimed at monitoring and preventing stops based on racial profiling.
The regulation would require police officers to record information on the date, time, duration, location and type of stop; an officer’s reason for presence at the scene; the circumstances that led to the stop; actions taken by the officer during the stop; and the result of the stop.
“Racial and identity profiling weaken public trust and have debilitating effects on communities. These regulations and data will help law enforcement improve policing practices and strengthen accountability,” said Attorney General Harris in a press release. “The existence of bias in policing undermines our criminal justice system and hurts public safety. I am proud that California continues to lead the nation in leveraging data and technology to identify and address disparities where they exist,” added the Senator-elect.
The proposed regulations also require officers to record perceived demographic information on the person stopped, including the perceived gender, race, and age of the person stopped, and whether the person has limited English proficiency or a pronounced accent.
In order to better understand the context for each stop, officers must also record their type of assignment, as well their years of experience. All information must be submitted to their Police Department, and in turn to the California Department of Justice for their analysis.
Each year, this information would be made public on the Department of Justice’s OpenJustice website.
The proposed regulations are now in the Public Comment Period, and people are encouraged to provide comment before they are implemented.
Andrea Guerrero, Executive Director of Alliance San Diego, was one of the members of the advisory board that helped shape the new proposed state regulations.
“We have a unique opportunity in California to come together as communities seeking safety and justice, and as law enforcement officers endeavoring to serve and protect those communities, to implement a hallmark law, the Racial and Identity Profiling Act, and take concrete steps to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and respect,” said Guerrero, “If we all lean in to understand and address profiling, we can move forward together for a better California”.
A study recently presented to City Council by San Diego State University shows that African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to be questioned by the police.
The report also showed a failure to collect information regarding law enforcement stops by some police divisions in San Diego, particularly those in communities of color.