We recently received a Twitter question regarding our online reporting criteria to file a police report with the Redwood City Police Department:
As you can see the red asterisk denotes a mandatory field that has a drop down menu to pick from several options--but the question is "why is my race a mandatory field when reporting a crime?"
The simple answer is that the State of California Department of Justice through the Office of the Attorney General requires the information so they are able quantify crime-related demographic data. Take a look at where this type if information is ultimately published for public consumption: http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/pubs.php and similarly, our State data is required by the federal government: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=3
California residents have legitimate interest in crime-related data within the state and the residents of Redwood City should always have access to how crime breaks down in our community. From a law enforcement perspective, how else can our organization recognize crime trends and develop crime prevention programs? How can we deploy our resources to effectively address youth violence or spikes in crimes against certain populations, neighborhoods, genders and/or races? Further, state and federal funding for targeted law enforcement programs is tied to demographic data that supports a categorical need in a defined group. For example, violence against women and/or domestic violence programming is tied to gender-based factual data just as juvenile initiatives would be tied to age-related criteria.
Specific to race--here in Redwood City we have a large Hispanic population and we are always monitoring our law enforcement response to better serve this demographic in our community. Our training criterion for officers includes cultural awareness, basic tactical Spanish language training, and outreach programs through our Police Activities League geared towards children and Community Policing for adults. We are also developing social media strategies to further identify & address the needs of all of our residents including answering questions directly when our residents want to know why we do things the way we do.
Law enforcement is not a fixed response or a secret and our goal is to serve our diverse Redwood City community as effectively as possible. Please take this as an invitation to all of our followers, fans and residents to ask the questions so we may have the opportunity to have a discussion.
