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January 10, 2018 The Skanner Page 9 Chicago cont’d from pg 8 259 reviewed cases, the individ- ual who was shot had access to a gun. This does not mean that these shootings were unavoidable, but it does suggest that many were prob- ably not as clearly unnecessary as “ These police- civilian encounters began as traffic stops for minor violations McDonald’s. So, what if anything can be done about “good apples” who shoot? Better training, many say. There can be little argument that better training is desirable. Some po- lice shootings in Chicago have oc- curred because officers were phys- ically dragged along after having reached into running vehicles. Some involved officers firing from moving vehicles, or at moving ve- hicles. Such practices are unnec- essarily dangerous and could be readily avoided if officers were better trained to avoid them. And of course, there is “deesca- lation,” a buzz word in public dis- cussion of police reform. Deesca- lation techniques are supposed to help officers defuse or withdraw from potentially violent incidents without jeopardizing anyone’s safety. There is nothing wrong with providing officers with more of this training. But, the emphasis on individual officer training is shortsighted. Both discipline and training fo- cus on how individual officers manage critical incidents. That overlooks an important question. How is it that an officer finds him- self squared off with a potentially armed individual? To answer that requires thinking critically about departmental choices in particu- lar neighborhoods, not just indi- vidual officers’ choices in particu- lar cases. It’s Where You Live The likelihood of getting shot by the police is much higher in some Chicago neighborhoods than in others. Of the 259 police shootings that the IPRA has released infor- mation about, nearly 90 percent occurred in minority neighbor- hoods. That goes a long way in ex- plaining why 80 percent of police shooting victims were Black in a city that is only one-third Black. The police department and oth- ers might point out that the likeli- hood of getting shot by anyone is much higher in poor Black neigh- borhoods than, say, middle-class white ones. Incidences of violent crime tend to be much higher in poor, minority neighborhoods. That would seem to explain why police shootings are also higher in those neighborhoods. Not so fast. The connection be- tween neighborhood violence and police shootings would make sense if shooting victims consisted exclusively of persons who were suspected of violent crime. But in nearly a quarter of the 259 IPRA incidents, it was the po- lice who stirred the pot. These po- lice-civilian encounters began as traffic stops for minor violations, because someone made a “furtive movement,” or just looked suspi- cious. Many of these stops were likely of the “stop and frisk” vari- ety that have been controversial in New York City, Chicago, and other Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Census cities. The shootings that occur in the course of these kinds of en- counters follow a general pattern. One of the stopped civilians flees and the police give chase. During or immediately after the chase, officers shoot in response to a per- ceived gun threat. Even if one believes the officers’ version of an encounter’s final mo- ments when a suspect’s threaten- ing behavior prompted the police to shoot, we should ask whether the initial stop should have oc- curred at all. And, even if the an- swer to that question is “yes,” we should ask whether a foot chase was justified, given the harmless- ness of the misconduct that precip- itated the initial stop. My review also revealed that plainclothes officers were respon- sible for nearly 40 percent of on-duty shootings. There is evi- dence from other departments that such officers are, per capita, re- sponsible for more shootings than uniformed officers. This may be because more aggressive officers are drawn to such assignments. It also seems possible that people have a hard time distinguishing these officers from civilians who mean harm — particularly when plainclothes officers break into an ongoing fight or melee. Police departments and policy- makers must critically examine the relationships between police shootings and stop-and-frisk, plainclothes policing and other en- forcement tactics. Doing so will af- ford insights into how to improve police-community relations in poor, minority neighborhoods. If this is truly reformers’ goal, more aggressive discipline and better training should be components of the agenda, not the whole of it. This article was originally pub- lished on The Conversation. cont’d from pg 7 zenship question on the once-a-decade census would allow the agen- cy to better enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars the dilution of voting power of a minority group through redis- tricting. “To fully enforce those requirements, the Department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights vi- olations are alleged or suspected,” the letter states. The letter asks that the Census Bureau “reinstate” the ques- tion. Census Bureau Gathers Citizenship Data in Other Surveys The full census, how- ever, hasn’t included questions about cit- izenship since 1950. The Census Bureau has gathered such data in other surveys. The bureau switched the method of those surveys after the 2000 census. Today, it conducts the American Communi- ty Survey every year, which includes ques- tions about citizenship, along with many other questions. The survey covers a sample of residents of the United States. Ex- perts said the Justice Department’s letter was misleading. And they questioned the Justice Depart- ment’s explanation in the letter, noting that the American Commu- nity Survey produces data on citizenship that has been used in Sec- tion 2 cases. “You could always have better data but it seems like a strange concern because no one in the communities who are most affected have been raising this concern,” said Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s De- mocracy Program. Do you have informa- tion about the Trump administration and the census? Contact Justin at justin@propublica. org or via Signal at 774- 826-6240. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
