The San Francisco police use force against blacks more often than other racial groups and pull over African American drivers at a disproportionately high rate, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report released Wednesday that found evidence of bias on the force.
The DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services conducted the review at the request of city officials following protests over the fatal shooting of a black man, Mario Woods, and the disclosure that some officers had exchanged racist and homophobic text messages.
[sc name=”Article Mobile Ad” ]
The report also noted there were 11 fatal incidents involving San Francisco officers in the past three years and nine involved people of color.
The DOJ report found 37 percent of the department’s use-of-force incidents over three years starting in May 2013 involved African Americans and nearly 15 percent of 330,000 traffic stops involved African Americans.
DOJ officials advised that more research was needed to determine whether the use of force figures reflect racism, discrimination or other factors such as a higher volume of calls.
Did you catch that? The DOJ issues a report that claims bias within the San Francisco Police Department but cryptically says “other factors” could be at play including “a higher volume of calls.”
Let us translate that for you. The San Francisco Police Department may have encountered African Americans at a disproportionately higher rate because the officers may be called to areas concentrated with a high number of African Americans more often.
Is it not ironic that a Department of Justice Report citing bias with the department is biased itself?
It’s not like this information is difficult to find out. The FBI tracks the race of offenders and victims each year and that is broken down to each city. It’s pretty easy to reason that law enforcement responds to areas where part 1 crimes (rape, robbery, homicide, burglary, etc) are reported at a much more frequent rate than other areas.
It took us about 10 minutes to find some basic information but maybe the DOJ didn’t have the time for their so called report that blasts an agency with racism claims.
The violent crime rate in San Francisco is double the national average and they have one of the highest property crime rates of any city in America.
In addition, the crime rate in San Francisco is four times higher than cities surrounding it.
African Americans accounted for 55 percent of homicide victims between Jan. 1, 2010, and July 31, 2015, even though they make up less than 6 percent of the city’s population.
While we didn’t immediately find a reference, the homicide demographics are generally an indication of the remaining violent crime demographics.
So what is the real story here? Is it what the DOJ claims? The San Francisco Police are racist because they stop African Americans in a car 15% of the time and use force on them 37% of the time or is this a story that depicts African Americans committing crime at a tremendous rate compared to their base population and the police are likely stopping them much less than one would be expected?
One thing is for sure. The Department of Justice is doing everyone an injustice by their incomplete and incompetent reporting.
The San Francisco Police Department should release all of their demographic data on who commits crime in the city. These are crimes with victims that are likely the same race as the offender and when it’s all said and done, it is these victims of crime that suffer. Then and only then would we get an accurate depiction of the actions of the men and women behind the badge in San Francisco.