Crime

Crime-tracking data poorly traced, report says

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — The LAPD uses a number of predictive programs to focus crime-fighting efforts in certain neighborhoods and on specific chronic offenders by analyzing data,

Published

6 years ago

March 19, 2019

Oakland Post

By Wave Newspapers

LOS ANGELES — Some Los Angeles Police Department programs that analyze data to predict where crimes may occur and identify “chronic offenders” need more oversight and have been inconsistently implemented, according to a report presented to the Police Commission March 12.

The LAPD uses a number of predictive programs to focus crime-fighting efforts in certain neighborhoods and on specific chronic offenders by analyzing data, including the LASER program and PrepPol. Both programs began in 2011 and have been criticized by some civil-rights advocates who claim they can lead to discrimination against minority groups.

In his report to the commission, LAPD Inspector General Mark Smith found that despite the fact the programs are data-driven, the information was sometimes poorly tracked and documented.

Smith said the primary finding of the report “unfortunately is that these programs lack some consistency in how they are being used throughout the department, how data was being tracked across the department.”

As to the Chronic Offender program, Smith’s report said “the format of the available data made it difficult, in some cases, to determine which activities were being conducted as the result of the program, and to assess the program’s overall impact.”

The commission did not take any direct action on the report, pending a two-week public comment period.

LASER is designed to inform officers where crimes are likely to occur and tracks ex-convicts and people they believe are most likely to commit crimes through technology, including cell phone trackers and license plate scanners.

By using data, including whether a person is a parolee or has ever been arrested, the LASER program generates a Chronic Offender Bulletin, which lists people the data says are most likely to commit a crime, even though they are not suspected in any specific crime.

The PredPol — short for “predictive policing” — program analyzes data about when and where crimes have occurred to identify “hot spots” in the city where certain types of crimes are more likely to be committed on a given day.

The Chronic Offender portion of the LASER program was suspended in August 2018, along with the use of the associated tracking database, according to the report. That same month, the commission held a public hearing on the programs and invited some of its harshest critics to give formal presentations on their opposition to them.

Although the LAPD has said race is not used directly in the data, members of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition argued at the August meeting and again this week that certain information such as parolee data and gang member identification allows the LAPD to racially profile using “proxy” data, because Latinos and blacks represent a high percentage of those tracked groups.

The end result, the groups argue, is the justification of using data to discriminate against minority groups. Smith’s report found that the overall racial makeup of individuals labeled in the chronic offender program are comparable to the demographics of those arrested for violent crimes in the city.

“What we are talking about is a language that reduces people to data-driven policing,” Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition told the commission. “It goes back to plantation capitalism, and remains plantation capitalism. People are numbers, people are statistics.”

The meeting came less than a year after LAPD Chief Michel Moore was sworn into office. During his career, Moore has been considered one of the department’s top experts on using data and analyzing crime statistics, but he said he welcomed the recommendations in the report.

“I’m thankful that this report has come today. Fundamentally, I believe that data-driven strategies improve policing, and that improves community safety,” Moore said. “What’s critical in that is that we recognize that the systems have to be thoughtful and they have to recognize that there’s a limit to what data can do.”

Moore said the department suspended the Chronic Offender program due to the public criticism, and in his view, there were “too many inconsistencies and raising too many concerns relative to civil rights advocates and members of the community that to let that continue unabated was counter to public trust.”

The report found that the majority of people identified as chronic offenders had few, if any, actual contacts with the police, who often reported that they attempted to locate the designated person but could not find them.

As to the predictive policing programs on locations and communities, the report found in most cases the amount of time spent in these areas appeared to be “relatively limited.” The report did note “a small proportion of events involving long durations or repeated visits. Based on the available information, it was generally not clear whether these visits were driven by the underlying program, or whether they were the result of other department activities or strategies.”

If the department were to again use a person-based strategy like the Chronic Offender program, “more rigorous parameters about the selection of people, as well as the tracking of data, should allow for a better assessment of these issues,” the report said.

For the location-based strategies, among the recommendations in the report is that the LAPD establish formal written guidelines that specify how areas are identified in the programs, when to conduct assessments of the zones, and what strategies and activities are to be taken at the locations.

The report also recommended that the LAPD develop a system for regular reporting of basic usage and outcome data on the programs to the commission and the public, look for opportunities to obtain independent evaluations and consider seeking community and commission input prior to the implementation of any new data-driven policing strategies or any significant revisions to the current data-driven programs.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

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4 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Man Found Guilty After Shooting Gun into Parked Car with Sleeping Passengers

Carmen Watts fired his gun into a parked car, where two unarmed men were sleeping, several times. One victim suffered multiple wounds, while the other was uninjured. He now faces 23 years in state prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 in Department 10 at the René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.

Published

2 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

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By Post Staff

A jury has returned a guilty verdict against Camren Watts on two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for an unprovoked shooting near the intersection of 51^st Street and West Street in Oakland back in September of 2020.

Watts fired his gun into a parked car, where two unarmed men were sleeping, several times. One victim suffered multiple wounds, while the other was uninjured. He now faces 23 years in state prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 in Department 10 at the René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.

“I first want to thank the jury for their service and careful deliberation in this trial,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney Royl Roberts. “I also want to congratulate the Prosecution Team for their hard work securing this conviction and recognize the Inspector on this assignment for their support throughout the case and jury trial. This guilty verdict reaffirms that anyone who uses a gun to harm people in our community will be held to account for their actions in a court of law.”

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New Interim Mayor Nikki Bas Takes Office, Announces Balanced Budget

“The Council made difficult but clear decisions last night,” Mayor Bas said in a statement released Thursday. “With yesterday’s budget adoption, the City of Oakland is on track to maintain our immediate fiscal health and our emergency reserves are at the required level.”

Published

2 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Nikki Fortunato Bas. Courtesy photo.

‘The Council made difficult but clear decisions,’ said Bas

Kaplan proposed for Interim District 2 Council seat

By Post Staff

Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas was sworn in interim mayor on Wednesday and immediately sat down with City Council members to rebalance the city’s budget, closing a projected deficit and maintaining emergency financial reserves.

“The City now seeks to move forward in strong collaboration with its Labor partners and the community-led Budget Advisory Commission toward long-term fiscal sustainability,” she said. “We all deserve to feel safe and secure, whether we’re taking our kids out to play, running our essential small businesses, parking our car on the street, or walking home at night.”

Bas took over as mayor from Sheng Thao, whose last day in office was Tuesday after losing a recall election in November.

“Thank you for choosing me to serve as your mayor. As the first Hmong American woman to become the mayor of a major American city, it has been the honor of my lifetime. I am deeply proud of the progress we created together,” Thao said.

Bas, in her final remarks as a councilmember, proposed that the City Council appoint Kaplan to replace her until the April election.

“As you know Councilmember Kaplan is retiring, she is willing to serve in this interim capacity. She is a resident of District 2 in Jack London, will not run for the seat in the special election; and I believe that she is uniquely qualified to jump in and immediately help to serve our District 2 residents, as well as key projects moving forward, and of course help lead the city’s biennial budget process,” Bas said.

At its meeting this week, the Council affirmed the City Administrator’s budget balancing actions, utilizing unrestricted and transferred funds to help fill the gap and provided direction and strategies to close the remaining need.

The proposals include finding new revenue from increased events and success at the Oakland Coliseum/Arena and other sources, making any further cuts a last resort.

They also proposed to immediately collect unpaid business taxes by doing an internal audit and strengthen controls on OPD overtime overspending.

Said Councilmember Kaplan, “It is vital to protect core public services, and the long-term fiscal solvency of our city. I am honored that the extra available funds I had previously identified have been confirmed, and are being incorporated into budget strategies, allowing Oakland to reduce cuts and restore reserves. In addition, important public serving and revenue-generating functions are being strengthened, including to reduce blight and provide safer, cleaner streets.”

Councilmember Kevin Jenkins (District 6) said, “The Fire Department, which had been preserved from cuts in July, was able to rapidly stop the Keller Fire from growing out of control, which prevented a repeat of the horrific loss of life and loss of homes that took place during the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire.”

According to a Mayor’s Office press statement, Oakland’s investments in the Oakland Police Department and the Department of Violence Prevention have yielded the fastest and most dramatic reduction in homicides in the city’s history.

The City’s deep investments in public safety over the past year continue to pay off, with homicides down 35% year-to-date and overall crime down by 34% since last year. The Public Safety Leadership team is very strong with OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell, DVP Chief Dr. Holly Joshi, OFD Chief Damon Covington, and their deputy chiefs having over a century of collective experience in Oakland.

The budget proposals preserve Oakland’s Ceasefire violence intervention strategy, prioritize OPD patrol and investigations, and continue services to improve 911 response times, with currently 71% of calls answered within 15 seconds or less — a dramatic improvement over the prior year, the press statement said.

Oakland’s investments in sidewalk repair, street paving, clearing abandoned autos, and safer conditions on our roadways are improving both safety and quality of life. The proposals restore funding for important and needed bicycle and pedestrian safety projects, street paving, and parking enforcement, the statement said.

The Council is considering a sales tax ballot measure for the April 15 special election. The proposed half-cent sales tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually. Ongoing revenue generation and improved efficiencies would help address the City’s structural deficit in the next two-year budget.