Syracuse, NY -- A yet-to-be released Syracuse Common Council study on racial profiling by city police officers has revealed two truths, the chair of the public safety committee said: • A young black man in a primarily white neighborhood is more likely to be stopped and frisked — without being arrested — than a young white man in the same...
Syracuse, NY -- A yet-to-be released Syracuse Common Council study on racial profiling by city police officers has revealed two truths, the chair of the public safety committee said:
• A young black man in a primarily white neighborhood is more likely to be stopped and frisked — without being arrested — than a young white man in the same neighborhood.
• A white man in a primarily black neighborhood is more likely to be stopped and frisked — without being arrested — than a black man in the same neighborhood.
Those findings come from a study of roughly 50,000 police calls in Syracuse, dating back to 2005, said Common Councilor Bill Ryan. It started with one question: If you are pulled over and frisked, how often are you arrested?
The study expands on a six-month racial profiling study done in 2005. The earlier study found that blacks were more likely to be stopped and arrested than whites. But when blacks and whites were stopped and frisked, whites were more likely to be arrested. Ryan said trends did not change significantly between the two studies.
The study’s co-author, William Horrace, of the Syracuse University Center for Policy Research, said having more than three years of data helped him to be more confident in his findings.
The study did not include complex definitions of race, but was confined to simple terms, like black and white, Ryan said.
Earlier this year, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler commissioned his own study on racial profiling, bringing in the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety, in Albany.
Fowler said that criminologists provided an important second opinion to the data presented by Horrace, an economics professor. Fowler’s study has not been presented. He declined to comment on its findings.
The Common Council study was presented to 15 pastors at a closed-door meeting Sept. 14 in Mayor Stephanie Miner’s office, officials said.
The Rev. David Tanyhill, an African-American pastor who attended the meeting, said he left with the same impression he had going in: Racial profiling exists in Syracuse, but it isn’t nearly as prevalent as some people believe.
Tanyhill, who is also police chaplain, said police made the point that officers often will stop anyone who fits the description of a wanted criminal. If that person happens to be black, police will pull over and frisk anyone who fits that description, Tanyhill said.
Fowler planned to present his own study’s findings at the pastors’ meeting, but his time was cut short. He plans to make his presentation at a later date.
After Fowler’s presentation, the council’s public safety committee will discuss the findings of both studies privately. Only then will they be released to the public, Ryan said.
Ryan said the council’s study doesn’t make any conclusions about why the trends exist. That’s up to community to decide, he said.