First came the study results, reports Al Jazeera. Lamberth Consulting, which specializes in racial profiling assessments, examined police stops at 12 different locations in Kalamazoo, a city of 75,000 starting in March 2012, and found that black motorists were more than twice as likely to be stopped as white drivers. And even though whites were more likely to be found with contraband like guns and drugs, far more blacks were searched, handcuffed, and arrested.
Then came the anger, public safety officers offended that the study results made them out to be bad guys. And many Kalamazoo public safety officers reacted to the study by cutting back their traffic stops dramatically. Next Chief Jeff Hadley made racial bias training mandatory for Kalamazoo officers, ordered that they document probable cause for every suspect they search and set up quotas for interactions with the public meant to build better relations with the community. Hadley says he’ll continue working to build trust between his officers and communities of color.
Excerpt: "I'm not going to sit here and paint some picture like every interaction is going to be Andy and Barney in Mayberry," Hadley said, referring to the classic sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show." “We deal with some complex stuff. We have to listen. We have to pay attention. We have to look ahead, down the road, and see what's the best way we can achieve crime reduction at the same time maintaining the relationship with the community."
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Source: Al Jazeera
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