By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
An ACLU report issued last month is now being refuted by state and local police. The report showed that blacks were arrested far more frequently than whites for marijuana possession, but police say their data is way off base.
State Police Lt. Col. Michael Winquist did some digging and found that, according to State Police arrest records, whites are much more frequently arrested for marijuana possession than blacks.
RI State Police Data
Winquist’s data looks at the same time period (2001-2010) that the ACLU study does, but draws only on State Police numbers, whereas the ACLU took their data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data. The FBI’s database is made up of arrests records submitted to them by local forces.
Of course, African-Americans make up are small sliver of the population, which likely accounts for the disparity between the two data sets — one is raw arrests, while the other is arrest rates.
ACLU Data from FBI/Census
Still, local cops say the ACLU data is misleading.
South Kingstown Police Chief Vincent Vespia said there’s “no reason” for him to take the ACLU data into consideration because it’s not representative of the trends he’s seen in his area.
Upon learning about the ACLU study, Vespia pulled marijuana possession arrest data for June 2011 to June 2013.
In that time period, he said South Kingstown Police arrested 157 people for possession, and 141 of them were white.
“I don’t know where American Civil Liberties Union got their figures,” he said. “But in relation to this department, they appear to be flawed.”
The ACLU study implies that Rhode Island police departments are making arrests based on race, something local agencies refute.
“The only thing we profile is people who commit crimes,” said Vespia.
Racial profiling is an issue police say they take seriously, and all of the police forces WPRO spoke with were adamant about their proactive steps to prevent biased arrests.
“We’re very conscientious of how we police,” said Winquist, who said officers receive training to prevent racial profiling from the very beginning of the police academy.
“We have voluntarily record our traffic stops since 2006,” said Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney, adding they keep close tabs on their policing practices.
McCartney said the ACLU study also points out low minority populations in some areas, but does not factor in transient population. Bristol Deputy Chief Steven Contente agreed, saying in his area, there’s a huge transient and student population. The ACLU study said some of the counties with the lowest minority populations had the highest minority arrest rate.
The ACLU data was broken down by county, and alleged that in Bristol County, from 2001 to 2010, blacks were arrested 7.4 times more frequently than their white counterparts.
Contente’s most recent numbers show a disparity with the ACLU data, too. In 2012, Bristol Police arrested 56 people for marijuana possession, and two of those people were black.
“I’m not really concerned about it,” he said. “I don’t think that’s excessive.”
The ACLU showed that across the state, in each year from 2001 to 2010, blacks were arrested roughly two times as frequently as whites for marijuana possession arrests.
“We watch it very closely here within our own department,” said Winquist.
This article has been edited for clarity.
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Kim Kalunian
