Police Chief Harris To Update Committee With Data on Racial Identity Profiling During Traffic, Pedestrian Stops

The Pasadena Police Department, which started collecting data on January 1 2022 to implement the state’s racial profiling laws, will update the Public Safety committee on its progress with the process on Wednesday. 

The Police Department was scheduled to begin reporting the data to the U.S. Department of Justice on April 1, 2023, in order to comply with the California Race and Identification Profile Act, known as RIPA.

But the committee will hear from Harris that Pasadena police are ahead of schedule and in fact began submitting data as of April 1, 2022.

Harris’s presentation reports that first and second quarter data have been submitted ‘with no errors,’ according to the Department of Justice. 

“Q3 and Q4 data are in process.”

The RIPA, also identified as AB 953, prohibits racial and identity profiling by law enforcement, and requires law enforcement agencies to collect perceived demographic and other detailed data regarding pedestrian and traffic stops. 

The law also requires reports of citizen complaints alleging racial and identity profiling to be sent to the Attorney General. 

In the report, the Pasadena Police Department said it’s currently utilizing ARCGIS Survey123, a “simple and intuitive form-centric data gathering solution,” as its RIPA data collection tool. 

It added that the tool is applied in the field through a city authorized device and data is not saved on device once submitted.

The tool was developed and is maintained by the City’s Department of Information Technology (DoIT). 

Currently, management analytics are limited to user last log-in and number of entries by user. DoIT is working on a data overview dashboard, the report said. 

Police Department personnel and DoIT staff are collaborating efforts towards data submission to the DOJ on a quarterly basis, the report mentioned. 

Pasadena has been able to establish a RIPA Board charged with eliminating racial and identity profiling and improving diversity, racial and identity sensitivity in law enforcement. 

The board intends to accomplish the task by investigating and analyzing law enforcement policy and data, and posting submitted data sets on the DOJ Open Justice Web portal.

Under the RIPA legislation, police are required to report any detention of a person by a peace officer, as well as any peace officer interaction with a person whom the officer searches, including consensual search.

The Public Safety Committee meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the City Council Chamber. The meeting is open for public in-person participation and can also be accessed online through http://pasadena.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=9 and www.pasadenamedia.org.