Author Topic: U.S. Justice Department to collect, study arrest data for racial bias  (Read 549 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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http://news.yahoo.com/u-justice-department-collect-study-arrest-data-racial-160543037.html


U.S. Justice Department to collect, study arrest data for racial bias
Reuters
By Julia Edwards 1 hour ago

By Julia Edwards

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said it will begin collecting data on stops, searches and arrests made in five U.S. cities to weed out possible racial biases within the criminal justice system.

Later this year, a $4.75 million federal grant will be awarded to recipients who compete for the funds to work with their local law enforcement to analyze arrest data and find ways to reduce any biases they find, particularly toward young minority men.

Black men were six times more likely, and Latino men were 2.5 times more likely, to be imprisoned than white men in 2012, according to Justice Department data.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the data collection effort is in response to President Barack Obama's call for better relations between law enforcement and young men of color following the "not guilty" verdict in the shooting death of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

"Racial disparities contribute to tension in our nation generally and within communities of color specifically, and tend to breed resentment towards law enforcement that is counterproductive to the goal of reducing crime," Holder said in a video address released Monday.

The grants for data collection align with the goals of the Obama administration's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative that supports efforts by nonprofits and businesses to address the high murder rate and low educational performance among young minority men.
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Offline mystery-ak

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DOJ to spend $4.75M studying race
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2014, 11:32:28 pm »
http://thehill.com/regulation/204556-doj-to-spend-475-million-for-data-collection-on-race-arrests

DOJ to spend $4.75M studying race

By Benjamin Goad - 04/28/14 02:14 PM EDT


The Justice Department will spend $4.75 million to create a center to collect racial data on police stops, searches and arrests in an effort to shine a light on a perceived bias against minorities.

The initiative, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, springs directly from the 2012 killing of teenager Trayvon Martin, which sparked a national debate about racial issues in the criminal justice system. The incident prompted President Obama to direct the agency last July to study ways to relax tensions between minorities and the nation’s law enforcement agencies.

In a video statement issued Monday afternoon, Holder pointed to a recent study finding that roughly half of all black men in the United States are arrested at least once by age 23. The same study found that black men were six times more likely to be arrested than white men in 2012.

“This overrepresentation of young men of color in our criminal justice system is a problem we must confront — not only as an issue of individual responsibility but also as one of fundamental fairness, and as an issue of effective law enforcement,” Holder said.

“We know — from research and from experience — that when people are treated fairly by police and other justice system agencies they are more likely to accept decisions by the authorities and obey the law in the future, even when they are penalized by criminal sanctions,” he continued.

The new National Center for Building Community Trust and Justice will be tasked with analyzing data on stops and searches, arrests and case outcomes.

The project will be funded through a grant program administered by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs, the COPS Office, the Civil Rights Division, the Office on Violence Against Women and the Community Relations Service.

The initiative will also involve the implementation of strategies to curb bias at five initial pilot sites.

“Of course, to be successful in reducing both the experience and the perception of bias, we must have verifiable data about the problem,” Holder said.

The effort is the latest in a series of agency actions Holder says will promote fairness in the criminal justice system. The agency has also implemented new charging policies for certain drug cases to keep some offenders from facing mandatory minimum sentences, and is working on regulations designed to tamp down on racial profiling.
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Offline SouthTexas

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Re: DOJ to spend $4.75M studying race
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2014, 10:48:26 am »
The initiative, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, springs directly from the 2012 killing of teenager Trayvon Martin,

“This overrepresentation of young men of color in our criminal justice system is a problem we must confront — not only as an issue of individual responsibility but also as one of fundamental fairness, and as an issue of effective law enforcement,” Holder said.

Really Holder?  Martin attacked Zimmerman and got his ass shot.  It would be more fair if Martin had killed Zimmerman before the cops shot and killed him?


Offline mountaineer

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Re: DOJ to spend $4.75M studying race
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2014, 11:30:25 am »
Why not? It's not like the DOJ has any actual criminal laws to enforce or anything.
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Offline SouthTexas

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Re: DOJ to spend $4.75M studying race
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2014, 03:11:29 pm »
Why not? It's not like the DOJ has any actual criminal laws to enforce or anything.

Well, since you put it that way.  LOL