In the last quarter of 2016, some tensions between police and citizens eased, as revealed in the statistics from the Bloomington Police Department’s most recent data reports.
The data sets, released Thursday, complete BPD’s first year of reporting through the transparency- and research-focused White House Police Data Initiative. The information is divided into 12 data sets, which focus on statistics from hate crimes and use of force to BPD employee demographics and officer training data. The data is available at data.bloomington.in.gov.
BPD Capt. Steve Kellams said he was proud of both the department’s data reportage, which he said he sees as leading the charge for such reporting and hopes will strengthen connections between the department and the public, and some of the particulars, such as a lack of citizen complaints this quarter, a lower use of force by police and no officer involved shootings.
Citizen complaints decreased throughout the year. There were three in the first quarter, two in the second, one in the third and none last quarter, and the department had no officer-involved shootings for the entirety of the year. Citizen complaints can be filed through an online form at bloomington.in.gov/police.
That data sets for those categories exist even when the department doesn’t see instances of them signifies BPD’s commitment to increased data transparency, Kellams said.
“We’ve got those data sets there for when we do to let people know we’ll post them when they happen,” he said.
Kellams was hesitant to provide interpretation on other statistics. Though panhandling complaints decreased slightly in the final quarter, at the same time, the department made an effort to subdue downtown panhandling. For example, he said it’d be impossible to guarantee BPD’s efforts caused the decrease.
Injuries to suspects in use-of-force situations also declined by half from 18 to nine from the third to fourth quarter, and total use-of-force situations decreased from 82 to 53 from the third to fourth quarter, while the use of less-lethal technology in those situations doubled from 6 to 12.
Kellams said he would like to chalk it up to good training, but he’s come to the conclusion that much of the police world is cyclical and the types of crimes committed as well as the situations police find themselves in vary from season to season, he said. Kellams said these statistics can’t predict the future.
“An effective and efficient result is a goal for all of our officers,” he said. “Less injuries could very well be a training thing, but sometimes there are situations you don’t have control over — other people push it to the point where de-escalation is no longer possible.”
The use of force data reported by BPD is extensive. In addition to the statistics on injuries and less-lethal technology, the department reports demographic information.
Among the eye-catching statistics: In 2016 more than a third — 76 of 207, or about 37 percent — of non-police parties involved in use of force situations were black. The rest were almost entirely white. Bloomington is overwhelmingly white — 83 percent of the population is white, and 4.6 percent is black, according to the 2010 census.
Kellams was in no position to interpret that data, either, he said. However, it’s information he said he knows people want to have access to.
“We provide the information,” he said. “That’s really all it’s there for. We make no elaboration about why we do it or what it’s there for or what to make of it.”
The push for BPD’s involvement in the Data Initiative came largely from the mayor’s office, Kellams said. Despite his philosophy of presenting data sets without comment, the action of posting them lines up with the goals specified by the White House in its April 2016 press release detailing its progress on the data initiative, which intends to improve transparency, community trust and police accountability.
One hundred twenty-nine jurisdictions, including 76 since April 2016, had signed on to the Data Initiative as of an October report from the Department of Justice. BPD was one of the earlier adopters and one of the smallest — the list of participating cities from last April includes metropolises like New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas.
By releasing extensive data sets easily accessed by the public, Kellams said he hopes Bloomington can be a leader in the initiative.
“When you look at what other people have done and what we’ve done, we hope you’ll see we’re at the forefront of it,” he said. “It’s a way to break down those barriers and walls between us and the community.”
