Thread: TX-Ca.study finds evidence of racial profiling in Irving

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California law school's study finds evidence of racial profiling in Irving

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, September 17, 2009
By BRANDON FORMBY
bformby@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News


An academic study of the Criminal Alien Program in Irving released Wednesday by a California law school said there is "strong evidence" that Irving police racially profiled Hispanics and probably referred lawful residents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Irving Mayor Herbert Gears called the study's findings flawed and said that the city would challenge the report's conclusions. Hispanic leaders said the report backs up long-running claims that police began targeting Hispanic residents once ICE officials started round-the-clock immigration checks on people arrested in the city.

The study by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity analyzed Irving police arrest records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

"The data analysis also reveals that with the 24-hour access to ICE, local police arrested Hispanics for Class-C misdemeanor offenses in significantly higher number than Whites and African-Americans," said the report.

The institute is part of the University of California, Berkeley Law School. It uses university and private funding to develop research aimed at informing advocacy groups, legislators and the public.


'Tremendous leap'

Irving officials, however, said they have not had a chance to vet the data. Gears late Wednesday criticized the institute for not contacting Irving police to gain insight into variations in the data.

"It's certainly easy enough to talk to our police department and get a response," Gears said. "They didn't even attempt to do that and made a tremendous leap into a wildly inaccurate assessment of our police department."

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd, who has fielded inquires about CAP from other law enforcement agencies, declined to comment Wednesday because he had not read the report.

"We certainly will look at the assertions in this report, and I can tell you right now we'll be challenging the incredible leaps that have been made," Gears said.

Irving began using the Criminal Alien Program in September 2006. Initially, ICE officials would visit the Irving jail to check the citizenship of inmates. In April 2007, Irving police began calling ICE officials around the clock to conduct residency reviews. This dramatically increased the number of prisoners who had their residency status checked.

In September 2007, Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea warned Mexican immigrants to stay out of Irving. He expressed concern on the number of arrestees Irving turned over to ICE. Soon, Hispanic activists held rallies, accusing Irving police of racial profiling. Anti-illegal immigration activists held counter-rallies in support of police.

The study found that from April to September 2007, the number of Hispanics arrested by Irving police for Class-C misdemeanors more than doubled. It also found that the number of whites and blacks arrested for the same level of offenses increased but at a less dramatic rate.

The institute's study also found that from April to July 2007, the number of Hispanics arrested for traffic violations more than tripled, outpacing the increased number of arrests for blacks and whites for similar infractions.

And, the study concluded, the number of ICE detainees whose arrests stemmed from an incident in which police have the discretion whether or not to arrest someone also increased more than 280 percent from April to September 2007.


Similar complaints

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney David Hinojosa said the report is consistent with complaints the group has heard from Irving residents.

"The racial profiling findings are very serious and we are continuing to investigate the matter in order to determine whether such actions are continuing in Irving," he said.

Irving LULAC chapter president Jorge Rivera said he hopes the report will pressure police to make changes. "We are against criminals," he said. "But we are not against people that have a good record, who were arrested because of a broken light or because they didn't use a turn signal."

Gears said the institute did not take into consideration that the round-the-clock ICE checks that began in April 2007 probably produced more people turned over to federal authorities.

He also insinuated that the institute was paid to specifically conclude that police racially profiled Hispanics. Aarti Kohli, a co-author of the study and the director of immigration policy at the law school, denied those accusations.

She said that the study was performed as a part of academic research and that no one specifically funded the work that went into the analysis. She also said no pre-drawn conclusions were made.

She said that CAP is generally touted by proponents as a way to screen people for immigration status without racially profiling because ICE officials simply look at everyone in a jail. But Kohli said the institute wondered if the availability of the program led police to then arrest more Hispanics.

"We wanted just do a pure investigation of the data," Kohli said. "When we did it, it was kind of amazing. If you look at the chart, you see how the spike happened."


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Well suprise surprise surprise ...

"Profiling" is an accepted means of criminal investigation. It forms the latest, chronologically, of the Triad of methods police use to idetermine who probably 'did it':
1. Clues
2. Criminology
3. Profiling

Why do some people keep harping about police using profliling? It sounds like they are playing the race card to exploit a loophole. Are they trying to go against decades of practice, training and education?

Of course the number of Hispanics run through the database are higher percentage wise that whites and blacks. That is because the officers ask people questions before running them through the databases and a higher percentage of Hispanics are foreign born or illegal!

Geez. What nonsense.

W

How does that saying go? Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics!