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“We are fortunate here in Howard County,” a County Council member once said to
a member of our Police Accountability Task Force of Howard County. “We don’t
have the kind of incidents that plague other police departments across our
nation.” At times, we’ve heard the same refrain repeated in our community. To
this, our response has been - show us the data.
Show us the data – is exactly what the Howard County Police Accountability Board
(PAB) has been able to accomplish. The PAB is a civilian police oversight board,
appointed by the County Executive and confirmed by the County Council, whose
duty is to ensure public accountability and transparency in policing.
The PAB sent a questionnaire to the HoCo Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs)
requesting detailed demographic information on officer engagements with the
public.
Disturbingly, the LEAs’ response revealed SIGNIFICANT RACIAL DISPARITIES IN
POLICING IN HOWARD COUNTY across many categories of officer engagements
with Black/African American persons (see below).
Similar significant racial disparities for Hispanic persons were also noted in a
recent PAB meeting.
Howard County Leadership is undertaking a racial equity strategic planning
process across county agencies. However, this is a process that will deliver change,
if at all, measured in years. PATF-HoCo has communicated to Leadership that this
can in no way be a sufficiently swift or targeted response to these alarming racial
disparities in policing.
The well-being of Howard County’s citizens demands that these racial disparities
be urgently addressed with targeted actions and expertise applied directly to
the HoCo Law Enforcement Agencies.
We call upon the PAB, the LEAs and County Leadership to:
secure an analysis of these racial disparities (which should cover all racial groups) by an independent third-party expert in the field of police accountability, including recommendations to mitigate these disparities as appropriate
develop metrics/targets and a strategy/plan to reduce racial disparities
establish a legal requirement for the LEAs to periodically report and publish information, including demographic data, on officer engagements with the public
The Police Accountability Task Force of Howard County (PATF-HoCo) is a group of Howard County citizens that has brought together a number of partner groups in a coalition representing a wide cross-section of Howard County citizens focused on advancing police accountability and transparency.
For more information on what you as a citizen can do to support our call for action, including sending a ready-to-go letter to Howard County Leadership, vist https://www.patf-hoco.com