Public Safety Committee to Receive Update on Police Dept.’s Implementation of Race and Identification Profile Act

[UPDATED] The Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee will receive a briefing on Wednesday from the Pasadena Police Department about the progress the Department has made in implementing the California Race and Identification Profile Act (RIPA) of 2015, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2015 and went into effect in 2018.

The RIPA, also called AB 953, prohibits racial and identity profiling by law enforcement, and requires law enforcement agencies to report data to the Attorney General’s Office on all vehicle and pedestrian stops, as well as citizen complaints alleging racial and identity profiling.

Based on the number of peace officers employed in the agency, as stipulated in the law, the Pasadena Police Department was required to begin collecting data at the beginning of the year and to start reporting data to the Attorney General by April 1, 2023. Agencies with bigger staffing began reporting data as early as April 1, 2019.

The law requires all city and county local law enforcement agencies in California, as well as the California Highway Patrol and peace officers of California State and university educational institutions, to collect perceived demographic and other detailed data regarding pedestrian and traffic stops.

Any detention of a person by a peace officer, as well as any search conducted on a person or vehicle is considered a reportable stop under the RIPA.

According to a Jan. 2021 report of stops by the CHP and the state’s 15 largest police agencies, which does not include Pasadena, an examination of 4 million traffic stops revealed that although white motorists were stopped more, Black motorists were searched  2.5 times the rate of their white counterparts. Officers searched approximately 8% of white people they stopped, but 20.5 percent of Black people — the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group.

Black motorists also had the highest rate of being detained on the curb or in a patrol car (17.8 percent), handcuffed (14.1 percent), and being ordered to exit their vehicles (7.7 percent).

On Wednesday, Karen Peterson, Executive Administrator of the Pasadena Police Department, is expected to present an update on the Department’s handling of the RIPA’s requirements and report on their current progress.

In a preliminary report, the Police Department said it is now using a mobile data collection system identified, designed and maintained by the City’s Department of Information Technology.

Between November and December last year, the Police Department tested the system, deployed the app on City-owned devices, and trained peace officers on their use, the report said.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Public Safety Committee begins at 4 p.m. and can be accessed through http://pasadena.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=9 and www.pasadenamedia.org.

Public comments may be posted on www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/public-comment prior to the start of the meeting.