On Wednesday night Citizens for Juvenile Justice unveiled its report on five thousand New Bedford Police Department interactions over five years. CFJJ’s report documented extremely disproportionate rates of stops and surveillance on Black residents and revealed New Bedford Police Department’s arbitrary and opaque criteria for adding youth to its gang database.
The presentation by CFJJ’s Joshua Dankoff outlined 8 main findings: (1) a decade after the Malcolm Gracia killing, the NBPD still has only a vague policy on field interrogations; (2) police interactions are focused on poor non-white communities; (3) Blacks and Hispanics are significantly over-policed; (4) 10 officers account for almost half of stops; (5) police stops skew heavily toward young people and occur from midnight to 3am; (6) many stops occur within a tenth of a mile from schools and public housing; (7) the gang database is problematic for numerous reasons; and (8) the NBPD itself is an institution plagued by a culture of racial insensitivity.
Following the presentation of data CFJJ offered 19 recommendations, many of which need to find their way into community demands for police reform.
The event, co-sponsored by multiple New Bedford based groups, drew almost 200 viewers. Community groups and activists, legislators, and at least two high ranking police officers attended the event. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell’s absence was conspicuous.
The report’s title, “We are the Prey,” was coined by a New Bedford youth and the report concluded with the observation that “the NBPD essentially operates as an occupying force in poor neighborhoods of color.”
NAACP New Bedford Branch President LaSella Hall didn’t find the conclusions all that surprising: “These reports tell a story that many communities of color already know,” Hall said. “For too long, people have said there’s no data. Now you have a robust report that at least says, ‘We have the data to support anecdotal experience.’”
Local rightwing critics were quick to discount the report, but hard data is difficult to argue with — particularly when it comes from the police themselves.
You can view a video of the Zoom presentation of the report here, the report itself here, and the slides used in the presentation here.
