Mayor Calls OPD Bias Research Results 'Unsettling'
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A study by a Stanford researcher shows only a slight drop in the large number of Oakland police stops that involve African-Americans, a finding Mayor Libby Schaaf calls "unsettling."
According to the results of the bias study recently released and discussed by a panel Thursday night at Laney College, the Oakland police made more than 32,000 stops in 2016 and of those 20,000 or 61 percent involved African Americans.
In 2017, that number decreased slightly to 60 percent. A list of 50 recommendations for ways to further reduce that percentage was released to the public during the panel discussion.
Some of those recommendations have already been implemented.
"The statistics are unsettling," Schaaf told the audience. "The amount of disparity in policing outcomes, the evidence of implicit bias is not acceptable. But, being open and honest and collecting data and changing policies, practices is the important first step to truly making progress in this area."
Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick agrees.
"Our disparity numbers are still high," she said. "We still stop large number of African Americans in our community. That's a number that I spend a lot of time being focused on and all of us do. How can we reduce that disparity?"
Recently members of the city's public safety committee questioned the $250,000 cost of the study and recommended ending it. Schaaf and others have defended continuing the research.
The Oakland City Council will have a final vote on the future of the study next Tuesday.