The Urbana Traffic Stop Data Task Force will make a public presentation of its year-long study of racially biased policing at Urbana's Dec. 7 City Council meeting.
The task force was created in June 2014 to study nine years of traffic stop data for evidence of racial profiling. The group took into account race, age, residence, stop time, stop location, the reason for the stop, and vehicle age, among other details. Beyond obvious signs of racial bias, the group was interested in reviewing the police practices applied during that time and the effect racially biased policing had or could have on a community.
The report was published Oct. 31 and offers a number of recommendations to address what it found to be a clear pattern of stopping minorities at a higher rate and a disproportionately high number of searches among stopped minorities.
Among the recommendations are continued bias training for police, continued study of patterns and trends, continued review of policing data in the context of race, lowering fines for citations that disproportionately affect low-income drivers, and increased positive community engagement between police and the communities most sensitive to racially biased policing.
The full list of findings and recommendations will be presented to the council and mayor at the Dec. 7 council meeting at 7 p.m.
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