New Data Collection Program Will Test Bias In Denver Policing

DENVER, CO – By Alex Burness In an effort to better understand and address complaints of biased policing in Denver, officers in the northeast part of the city will begin recording race, gender, clothing, age and 30 other data points any time they stop, arrest or otherwise contact a member of the public.

This program asks officers to fill out contact cards based on their perceptions of the people they’re contacting. The idea is to capture extensive data to learn how cops might act differently based on whom they’re stopping, where and for what reasons to determine whether there is a pattern of biased policing that matches up with residents’ experiences.

The program is a pilot that will begin in mid-July and run for three months in Denver’s police District 2, which includes Elyria Swansea, Cole, Clayton, Park Hill, City Park, Congress Park, Hale and Montclair. District 2 was chosen because it’ll soon be under the command of Cmdr. Ron Thomas, who’s been closely involved in the crafting of the pilot.

As this new program is being rolled out, the New York-based police-behavior research group Center for Policing Equity is separately examining five years of historical data, provided by the police department, on policing and possible bias in Denver. The results of that study, which began about a year ago, aren’t available. Once they are, that study along with takeaways from the upcoming District 2 pilot, will lead to a citywide expansion of the pilot later this year, officials said during a public meeting Tuesday evening at Seventh Day Adventist Church in Park Hill.

That citywide program will have a longer, perhaps indefinite time frame, officials say, and will be focused both on continued data collection and on using that data to inform potential changes in policing across the city.

“This isn’t a temporary project. This is another institutionalized piece of how they collect information,” said Lisa Calderon, co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum, who sat on the task force that created the program.
“I think what we don’t know is the format. Will it always be this card? But the intention is that we’re continually collecting this information so we can analyze it.”

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Photo by Alex Burness