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MARCH 2007 HOT TOPICSIs There Racial Bias in the Cincinnati Police Department?
RAND Corporation researchers were asked to evaluate progress over a five-year period. The second-year results from the evaluation focused on one of the agreement's key goals: “ensure fair, equitable, and courteous treatment for all” parties in police–community interactions. The study found there is a perception of bias in Cincinnati policing, fueled in part by the fact that more blacks than nonblacks live in the high-crime neighborhoods where CPD engages in more proactive policing. This perception is reinforced by experiences at traffic stops. Researchers analyzed 325 randomly sampled video records of traffic stops and found several key differences, including the fact that black drivers were more likely to experience proactive policing during the stop (e.g., more questions about drugs or weapons and longer stops that were significantly more likely to involve searches). But although blacks citizens tend to experience a more intensive police presence than nonblacks, analysis of vehicle stop data showed, as they did in the first-year evaluation, that there is no systematic pattern of racial bias, once stops of black and white drivers from the same neighborhoods at the same times of day and with other matched situational characteristics are compared. When situational factors are not equivalent, differences between blacks and nonblacks are very large. But when black and white drivers are matched, most differences disappear. The study findings suggest room for improvement. For example, CPD resource allocation and crime control policies disproportionately affect blacks, which places a greater burden on law-abiding residents living in the areas where enforcement is intensive. The burden may be partly alleviated by developing a clear sense of what the community values in crime reduction and then tailoring interventions. READ MORE: Efforts to Improve Police-Community Relations in Cincinnati Helping the New Orleans Police Department Get Back on Its Feet
Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed largely disabled the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). As a result, the NOPD has suffered from unusually high rates of departure from the force and an inability to recruit new officers. RAND Corporation researchers conducted a “quick-look study” to help address the NOPD's recruiting and retention problems, drawing on insights gained from decades of working with a number of large governmental organizations on ways to improve the management of their personnel systems, most extensively with the Department of Defense but more recently with several municipal police departments. In the first 14 months after Katrina, the NOPD lost officers at annualized rate of about 17 percent, compared to 5 percent before the storm. More problematic, losses were concentrated among the junior ranks—the officers who patrol the streets and who were being groomed for future leadership. Recognizing the city's budgetary constraints, researchers focused on, but were not limited to, identifying initiatives that could help the NOPD while imposing modest or no additional costs on the city. For example, NOPD salaries are not competitive with those in comparable cities, which led researchers to stress the need for the city to follow through on promises for pay increases as patrolmen advance through the junior ranks. The study also identified initiatives to remove some identified impediments to career progression; in addition, it suggested the NOPD make its recruiting effort more proactive and ensure that all uniformed personnel are assigned to duties that they—as opposed to civilians—are uniquely qualified to perform. The study also stresses the need for the city begin to rebuild the criminal justice infrastructure damaged by the storm. Mayor Ray Nagin and RAND released the study to the public jointly at a press conference at City Hall in New Orleans on March 30, 2007. At that time, the Mayor noted that the city had already acted upon several of the RAND recommendations, most notably, increasing the pay of junior patrolmen and (with the New Orleans Civil Service Commission) moving to increase the frequency of the promotion examinations. READ MORE: Improving Recruitment and Retention in the New Orleans Police Department
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The RAND Safety and Justice Program conducts research, analysis, and demonstrations that help policymakers, government agencies, and communities improve public safety. To access our research, please visit our website at www.rand.org/ise/safety/. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. Learn More »Copyright © 2007 RAND Corporation. RAND® is a registered trademark. The RAND Safety and Justice Congressional Newsletter is distributed on an opt-in basis only by visiting us at www.rand.org. We respect your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this periodic newsletter, please email ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100 x5395. This newsletter is also available on the RAND Congressional web site at http://www.rand.org/congress/newsletters/safety_justice/2007/03/. |
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In 2001, U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the use of force by the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD). This review, combined with a brief period of civil unrest, sparked partly by several police killings of black residents in a relatively short period, led the CPD to enter into an agreement with local police and civil rights groups to improve police–community relations.
