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Legislation

MASSACHUSETTS

Chapter 228 requires the Executive Office of Public Safety to work with the Department of State Police and municipal police departments to ensure that adequate efforts are being made to identify and eliminate any instances of racial and gender profiling by police officers. In addition to data collection, chapter 228 provides for in-service and pre-service training as well as a public awareness campaign on racial and gender profiling. As part of the legislation, a toll-free hotline was also created for motorists to register complaints of alleged racial profiling. Two jurisdictions are also collecting data voluntarily in Massachusetts.

Chapter 228 of the Acts of 2000, An Act Providing for the Collection of Data Relative to Traffic Stops

Status: Enacted July 10, 2000 ; Effective April 01, 2001

Restrictions: citations only

Data Collection Dates: April 01, 2001 through March 31, 2002

Data Collected: race, gender, action taken, warning given, citation given, arrest made, personal search conducted, search of vehicle conducted, contraband found

Other Information: Chapter 228 requires all departments of the state police and the Massachusetts Police Chiefs of Police Association to develop policies and procedures on how to identify and prevent racial and gender profiling by police officers. The policies have to be approved by the Executive Office of Public Safety. The collection consists of information pertaining to the identifying characteristics of the individuals who receive a warning or citation or who are arrested. The Executive Office of Public Safety must initiate a public awareness campaign on racial and gender profiling, including a toll-free complaint line. The Registry of Motor Vehicle shall collect the data, shall maintain and report the statistical information monthly to the Secretary of Public Safety, and an annual report shall be presented to the Attorney General, the Department of State, the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association, the Executive Office of Public Safety, and the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Related Articles:

Data Collection Reports:

Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Final Report
Amy Farrell, Jack McDevitt, Lisa Bailey, Carsten Andresen, Erica Pierce
Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Report -- Executive Summary
Amy Farrell, Jack McDevitt, Lisa Bailey, Carsten Andresen, Erice Pierce
Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Technical Report
Amy Farrell, Jack McDevitt, Lisa Bailey, Carsten Andresen, Erica Pierce
Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Study - Preliminary Tabulations Released
Northeastern University Institute of Race and Justice

What's New:

POLICE UNION SUES OVER ID USE
Suzanne Smalley and John Ellement
State on Hunt for Racial Profiling
Michael Levenson
Boston, MA: MA orders police to collect profiling data
Karen Testa, Associated Press
Boston, MA: Profiling study cites dozens of locales
Bill Dedman
Racial Profiling study set to begin, NU team to analyze traffic-stop data - (MA)
Francie Latour
Massachusetts Passes Racial Profiling Bill
American Civil Liberties Union

Contact Information:

Executive Office of Public Safety
1 Ashburton Place, Rm 2133
Boston, MA 02108
617-727-7775
http://www.state.ma.us/eops/profiling.htm

ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT'S STOP, QUESTION, AND FRISK PRACTICES

RAND Corporation

In 2006, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stopped a half-million pedestrians for suspected criminal involvement. Raw statistics for these encounters suggest large racial disparities — 89 percent of the stops involved nonwhites. Do these statistics point to racial bias in police officers’ decisions to stop particular pedestrians? Do they indicate that officers are particularly intrusive when stopping nonwhites? The NYPD asked the RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) to help it understand this issue and identify recommendations for addressing potential problems. CQP researchers analyzed data on all street encounters between NYPD officers and pedestrians in 2006. They compared the racial distribution of stops to external benchmarks, attempts to construct what the racial distribution of the stopped pedestrians would have been if officers’ stop decisions had been racially unbiased. Then they compared each officer’s stopping patterns with an internal benchmark constructed from stops in similar circumstances made by other officers. Finally, they examined stop outcomes, assessing whether stopped white and nonwhite suspects have different rates of frisk, search, use of force, and arrest. They found small racial differences in these rates and make communication, recordkeeping, and training recommendations to the NYPD for improving police-pedestrian interactions.

FLORIDA: JACKSONVILLE POLICE RECEIVE NO RACIAL PROFILING COMPLAINTS IN ’08

The Jacksonville Police Department presented its annual Racial Profiling Report which covers Calendar Year 2008 and showed that JPD received no formal reports of racial profiling. It also confirmed that local police are conducting traffic stops using legal criteria and not race as their motivation for enforcement action. Currently, the Texas Racial Profiling Law requires that police departments collect data pertaining to traffic stops, pedestrian stops, searches conducted and citations issued.

TEXAS: BELLAIRE MAYOR TO INVESTIGATE RACIAL PROFILING ALLEGATIONS

The mayor of Bellaire responded publicly for the first time to allegations of racial profiling due to an incident of mistaken identity. Officers will now be required to participate in additional cultural sensitivity training. The city is also hiring an independent state consultant to analyze traffic stop data for 2008 and look for incidents of racial profiling. The mayor also promised to release the results of the district attorney's investigation publicly, once it is completed.

CALIFORNIA: TORRANCE POLICE PROFILING SUIT IS DEFEATED

A woman who claimed she was wrongly arrested by Torrance police because of her race has lost her federal lawsuit against the city, a former chief and two officers. Sara Plowden, who lived in Gardena when she filed the civil rights lawsuit in January 2006, claimed she was subjected to a "driving while black" arrest early on Nov. 23, 2003. She claimed the officers physically accosted her and that city officials and former Police Chief James Herren allowed "an atmosphere of lawlessness, abuse and misconduct" to fester in the department.

ARKANSAS: ARIZONA DPS TIGHTENS SEARCH RULES TO AVOID PROFILING

The Arizona Department of Public Safety, in moves intended to prevent and detect racial profiling, is making internal changes that include requiring Highway Patrol officers to document why they search vehicles they stop. Other changes announced by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office include requiring officers to obtain a motorist's consent for a search to get the driver's signature or to use video or audio to record the driver giving permission verbally.

UTAH: UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING

Sherida Felders, a black grandmother, alleges a Utah Highway Patrol officer had no reason to believe her Jeep Commander contained illegal substances, but called in a drug-sniffing dog after stopping her for speeding Felders has filed a suit accusing the trooper of conducting an illegal search of her vehicle for drugs based on racial profiling.