A review of criminal arrest data suggests that minorities are much more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses than their white counterparts in Minneapolis.
To compile their findings, researchers at the American Civil Liberties Unions and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota reviewed nearly 100,000 arrests by the Minneapolis Police Department from Jan. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2014. The arrests centered around low-level crimes, like speeding, curfew violations, public alcohol consumption or trespassing.
After examining the data, researchers uncovered:
- African Americans are nearly 9 times more likely to be arrested for a low-level offense in Minneapolis than white people.
- White people make up 64 percent of the Minneapolis population, but only 23 percent of low-level arrests.
- Black youths are 6 times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses than white youths, and American Indian youths were nearly 8 times more likely to be arrested than white youths.
“We’ve become the new South,” said Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change in North Minneapolis. “We’ve become the new premier example of how to systematically oppress people of color.”
The numbers are concerning, but believe it or not, those numbers are actually an improvement from the past. Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said it’s a start, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“We’re measuring it and we’re making it public, so anybody can see what’s really happening,” said Samuelson. “The report acknowledges that the Minneapolis Police Department has taken steps to improve disparities, such as encouraging officers to spend more time interacting with the public, but it also says more must be done.”
Recommended Changes
One area that needs to be revamped, according to Samuelson, is how low-level offenses are enforced. Whether or not a person receives a ticket should be based solely on the actions, not their ethnicity.
“We believe that fundamentally the tactics need to change, the training needs to change,” Samuelson said. “If you are going to criminalize behavior, then you’ve got to enforce it among everybody. … You need to enforce the laws based on behavior, and not by color.”
The ACLU also concluded with the following recommendations:
- Ensuring officers aren’t rewarded based on number of arrests.
- Improving policy enforcement which bans racial profiling.
- Tracking officer data that shows all daily interactions, even those that don’t end in arrest.
Related source: Twin Cities.com
