WHICH IS THE REAL LAPD?

An ACLU Report About LAPD Racial Profiling Raises More Questions Than Answers.

Given the Los Angeles Police Department's historically troubled
relationship with black and brown communities, it's tempting to
brandish a recent report about the disparity between how frequently
minorities are stopped and arrested compared with whites and use it
as proof of ongoing discrimination. Tempting, but wrong. The data for
the report, analyzed by a Yale economist at the request of the
American Civil Liberties Union, certainly provoke questions about
policing in minority neighborhoods, but they don't convict the
department of widespread racial profiling.

The study found that LAPD officers are more likely to stop, frisk and
arrest minorities than they are whites. It also found that officers
were less likely to find weapons or drugs on blacks or Latinos during
these searches, implying that the searches were unfounded. That
sounds damning, and maybe it is. But an analysis of the same data
conducted by a Times staff member put the information in a broader
context. Yes, officers stop minorities more often, but the number of
searches closely correlates with the number of crimes committed in a
given police reporting district -- an area about the size of a census
tract. Without more information, it's impossible to determine whether
officers are stopping people solely because of race, or -- as blacks
and Latinos are more likely to live in districts with higher crime
rates -- because officers are working higher numbers of cases.

Chief William J. Bratton is adamant that the report is flawed; the
4-year-old data used do not provide an up-to-date snapshot of the
LAPD and its reforms, he says. That the department makes an effort to
discourage disparate treatment is clear. Recruits are questioned
about their racial attitudes during mandatory polygraph tests;
officers are trained in racial sensitivity and monitored by cameras
mounted in patrol cars. Perhaps most important, today's LAPD is far
more diverse than it was just a decade ago. As a result, its
relations withminority communities have undeniably improved.

That being said, the LAPD does have a history of profiling, but it is
in statistical denial of that fact. Not one of the 320 profiling
complaints filed last year was validated by the department, nor were
any of those filed in the five previous years. Blacks and Latinos are
stopped and searched more frequently than whites, and few would deny
the probability that some of those stops are unwarranted. After all,
this is a relationship on the mend, not one that has fully healed.

The real problem seems to be that for all its efforts, the LAPD does
not yet know how to detect and quantify disparate treatment. Ian
Ayres, the professor who prepared the ACLU report, says he can help,
and the department should take him up on his offer. The truth surely
lies somewhere between the spotless image claimed by the department
and the sullied one implied by the report.