Chas presentation final

Building Respectful & Trust-Based
Relationships with our Communities

CHAS Conference

January 19, 2012

Steven J. Healy, Managing Partner

Margolis Healy & Associates

Agenda

•  A Story

•  On the Front Lines

•  Racial Proﬁling & Bias-Based Policing

•  A Plan

© Margolis Healy & Associates, LLC

About MHA

•  Formed in 2008

•  Over 20 associates; all current/past
practitioners

•  Have worked with over 85 IHEs

•  Manage 3 Federal grants

•  Building the CPS Body of Knowledge


Story

•  Miscommunication

•  Misunderstanding

•  Mistakes

•  Misinformed

•  Misconduct

•  Mismanagement

•  Mistrust


Respectful Relationships

•  Sir Robert Peel’s (1829) Principles of
Policing:

The police are the public and the public are
the police.


Respectful Relationships

•  Alienates the community

•  Reduces trust

•  Impacts information sharing

•  Creates dissatisfaction

•  Increases complaints

•  Creates fear

•  Increasing tension and hostility

•  Violence


On the Front Lines

•  Most campus community members will
never interact, substantively, with CPS

•  Most interactions are casual or involve
routine services

•  Small % of interactions are enforcement
oriented

ü  Many of those involve alcohol


On the Front Lines

“The reputation of your agency is directly
proportional to quality of the interactions
between line level ofﬁcers and community
members.”

Chief Patrick Oliver


On the Front Lines

“We deal with the worst at their best, and
the best at their worst.”

Anonymous


Racial Profiling, Defined

Many definitions, many perspectives
any police action that relies on the race, ethnicity
or national origin of an individual rather than the
behavior of an individual or information that leads
the police to a particular individual who has been
identified as being, or having been, engaged in
criminal activity.

Professor Deborah Rameriz



•  Many deﬁnitions, many perspectives

•  Bias-based Policing:

The act (intentional or unintentional) of
applying or incorporating personal, societal, or
organizational biases and/or stereotypes in
decision-making, police actions, or the
administration of justice.

NOBLE (Chief Ron Davis)



•  Racial profiling is a symptom of bias-based
policing

•  In most cases, it is the unintentional application
of bias

•  It is widespread – since we all have biases

•  Racial profiling is not necessarily about racism –
it is about race

•  Committed by all officers (black/white)

•  Based on the stereotype that minorities are
more likely to commit crime or carry narcotics/
contraband.


Racial Proﬁling in the News

•  In 2006, NYPD stopped a half-million pedestrians for
suspected criminal involvement.

ü  Raw statistics for these encounters suggest large racial
disparities

ü  89 percent of the stops involved nonwhites

•  RAND Center on Quality Policing compared the racial
distribution of stops to external benchmarks

ü  They examined stop outcomes, assessing whether stopped
white and nonwhite suspects have different rates of frisk,
search, use of force, and arrest.

•  Found small racial differences in these rates

ü  Communication, recordkeeping, and training
recommendations to the NYPD for improving police-
pedestrian interactions.



•  City of Cincinnati

ü  Facts and Holding: The American Civil Liberties Union of
Ohio Foundation and the Cincinnati Black United Front
brought a lawsuit on behalf of the African American
members of both groups.

ü  Suit sought court order requiring PD to alter its practices
of racial proﬁling and monetary damages

ü  Also alleged the tendency of police to use excessive and
deadly force against African Americans more often than
against non-minority citizens.

ü  DOJ joined the suit.

ü  In April 2002, the city and the DOJ negotiated a
Memorandum of Agreement that settled the suit.



•  Village of Mount Prospect, IL

ü  U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo referred to
allegations of discriminatory treatment of Hispanics
raised during an employment discrimination case

ü  Mount Prospect Police Department engaged in a
pattern or practice of excessive use of force that
discriminated against individuals based on race, color,
national origin, or ethnicity.

•  Settlement: The Memorandum of Agreement (2003)
covers the areas of: Policy Requirements and Related
Procedures, Documentation, Supervision, Community
Relationships, Training, Oversight, Reporting,
Recordkeeping, and Implementation.


Not in MY Agency!

Approximately 60% of police chiefs
surveyed by PERF did not believe racial
proﬁling exists in their agency.

Approximately 60% of the community
surveyed by the Washington Post
believe it does exists.


Not in MY Agency!

Don’t confuse the lack of complaints
with the absence of a problem.

Chief Ron Davis


Not in MY Agency!

•  Anecdotal data drawn from our work:

ü  Many students of color perceive bias from the
administration

ü  Several expressed being mistreated by CPS

Ø  Proﬁled at night when they’re walking on
campus

Ø  Harassed in the wake of a crime

Ø  Treated differently by CPS when they’re
hosting special events

Ø  Their friends felt disrespected when they
visited campus


Recommendations to Attorney General National
Task Force on Racial Profiling

•  Define Racial Profiling

•  Develop Model Racial
Profiling Policies

•  Identify its Causes and
Impacts

•  Develop Racial Profiling
Training

•  Develop Standardized Data
Collection Models

•  Develop Strategies to
Eliminate Profiling

•  Develop Standardized Data
Analysis Models

•  Enhance Mediation &
Facilitation Programs

•  Conduct National Traffic
Stop Study

•  Publish Self Assessment
Guide


Model Policy

•  Defines Racial Profiling

•  Describes what values it violates

•  Prohibits racial profiling and any activity that
results in racial profiling

•  Develops/Reinforces Citizen Complaint
Process

•  Outlines audit and inspection processes

•  Outlines administrative actions and/or
punitive measures

•  Enforced relentlessly


A Plan

•  Mission-Vision-Values

•  Recruitment & Hiring

•  Training

•  Assignments

•  Promotion

•  Discipline/Accountability

•  Community Relations

•  Leadership


A Plan – Early Warning Systems

•  Complaints

•  Use of Force

•  Resisting Arrest

•  Cases not charged

•  Driving

•  Report Writing

•  Sick Leave

•  Approach/Disposition (attitude)


A Plan – Leadership

•  Create feedback mechanisms

ü  Survey data

ü  POS surveys

ü  Campus-wide climate surveys

ü  Community advisory committees

ü  Strong relationship with diversity ofﬁce,
women’s center, GLBTQ ofﬁce, Pan-
Hellenic groups, student affairs


A Plan – Leadership

•  Courageous

•  Customer-Based

•  Principle-Driven

We cannot get so focused on keeping
our jobs that we forget to do our jobs.


Remember the inscription on the front of
the United States Supreme Court:

“Equal Justice Under Law”

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