MIN 06-15-20 - Laserfiche WebLink

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As a person whose father and brother were victims of police violence and pretextual stops, I wanted to share my thoughts on what should be done to best address this issue from a perspective of someone from a brown community. First and foremost, it is important to seek out people from black and brown communities - residents - to be involved in shaping what these policies should look like. It is my opinion that the act of simply banning a choke hold does not address the systemic causes for implicit bias in our community. However, it does constitute a first step, which is essential if we are to get anywhere meaningful on this issue. My recommendations on policing policy changes to consider: Ban Pre-Textural Stops When developing the policy, consider that it is insufficient for it to define racial profiling as occurring only when race or ethnicity is the definitive, explicitly stated, or only factor underlying an officer's decision to stop, question, detain, or arrest someone. These definitions, though seemingly applicable on their face, provide plausible deniability to an officer as long as they can state any other nonaligned reason for making a stop, thus making it easy to argue that an officer did not make a stop based-on or only because of a person's race or ethnicity, even if the officer was, in fact, motivated by the person's race or ethnicity. It often happens that police stop folks from minority communities for a minor infraction and use it as justification of an additional search or investigation having nothing to do with the original reason for the stop. The process for stopping someone should be limited to only specific reasons stated directly to the person stopped, unless the officer has clear probable cause that a search of this person's belongings will give rise to evidence of a crime or reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. Officers articulating the reason for a stop as soon as possible should be stated in the policy and required of all interactions with the public. Clarify the Unconstitutionality of Racial Bias in Policing The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits police from stopping a pedestrian or motorist, regardless of infraction, if an officer would not have stopped someone of a different race or ethnicity for the same violation. In addition, the Fourth Amendment requires articulated reasonable suspicion that a person has committed, is about to commit, or is in the process of committing a crime or driving infraction. Unless an officer believes that a person may fit the description of a current wanted suspect that includes other identifying characteristics separate from race or ethnicity, officers are prohibited from using race or ethnicity as justification for reasonable suspicion.