The use of statistics in Ferguson
“Data seems like a dry and boring word, but without [it] we cannot understand our world”…”[w]ithout complete and accurate data, we are left with idealogical thunderbolts.”
– FBI director James B. Comey as he promised to encourage police chiefs to collect and share information
The Ferguson report released last week by the Department of Justice examined Ferguson Police Department (FPD) police data for racial bias and unconstitutional practices. The report included statistics that point to the city’s police department violating civil rights laws.
The FPD, after being told it was negligent for missing a March 1 deadline, submitted its traffic-stop data. Law enforcement agencies that failed to comply with the state racial data requirement risked losing state funding.
Ferguson report statistical highlights
Although black residents make up 67% of the population, they constitute:
- 95% of jaywalking charges
- 94% of failure to comply charges
- 92% of resisting arrest charges
- 92% of peace disturbance charges
- 89% of failure to obey charges
- 88% of cases that in which an FPD officer reported using force
- 68% less likely to have their cases dismissed by the Municipal Judge
- Two times more likely to be searched during a vehicular stop and 26% less likely to have contraband
These type of statistics are not unique to Ferguson. The New York Civil Liberties Union reported that while black and Hispanic New Yorkers are 50% of the population, they make up 81% of citizens served with violations. The ACLU of Minnesota found that a black person is almost nine times more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct than a white person, and over ten times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. The ACLU of Massachusetts reported that Boston’s population is less than one-quarter black, over 60% of encounters between police and civilians were with black citizens.
Mona Chalabi of FiveThirtyEight offers insight into the complexity of the analysis and statistics of discrimination. Ferguson has been criticized for having only four nonwhite officers out of a police force of 54. Another facet Chalabi points to is Bureau of Justice Statistics data that shows that it’s not just white offers stopping drivers of color.
The Center for Policing Equity, an organization of scholars and law enforcement officers at UCLA, is collaborating with a number of police departments to begin collecting data on stops and use of force. Phillip Atiba Goff, one of the founders of the Center for Policing Equity, commented on the complexity of the bias apparent in the data, by pointing out that civilians influence the bias as they initiate investigations. He gives an example of white residents being more likely to call the police if they see a black person walking down the street. “It ends up being the prejudices of community that drive law enforcement outcomes” Goff said.
Jon Stewart also threw in his $0.02.
Related reading
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Data Collection: State Police Traffic Stop Data
- NYCLU Stop-and-Frisk Data
- Searching for Consent: An Analysis of Racial Profiling Data in Texas, by Molly Totman, J.D. from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, and Dwight Steward, Ph.D., Director of EmployStats
