Study of California Police Finds Almost No Racial Profiling

Critics of law enforcement are outraged by the second annual report of the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, which found very few incidents of racial profiling by police across the state.

The research effort is the first of its kind in the nation, mandated by a state law signed in 2015, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. That law established the racial profiling board and required it “to investigate and analyze state and local law enforcement agencies’ racial and identity profiling policies and practices across geographic areas in California” and to publish an annual report of its findings.

The report found: “Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition in 2017, 10 (1.5%) were sustained, 77 (11.7%) were not sustained, 96 (14.6%) were exonerated, and 476 (72.2%) were determined to be unfounded.” 17 percent of police agencies found no racial profiling at all.

The Associated Press reports that advocates for police reform are suspicious that only 10 incidents of racial profiling were sustained for a state of 40 million people.

The board itself is divided, with some members agreeing with the report’s finding that racism by police is rare:

The people who share leadership of the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board are divided over the seriousness of the problem and whether changes are needed based on the results of the second annual report.

Andrea Guerrero, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance San Diego, doesn’t believe the numbers and thinks it might be the result of police protecting their own.

“We know we have a profiling problem in the state,” she said.

Her co-chair, Kings County Sheriff David Robinson, disputed that. He said the numbers reflect the reality that it’s “so rare and far between that someone is racist.”

Activists, however, suspect a cover-up to protect law enforcement.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.