Observations on California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (AB953) From a Critical Police Studies Scholar-Advocate

• In Event: Roundtable: Reforms in Law Enforcement

Abstract

This roundtable presentation involves both scholarly and community-based insights on public meetings and reports mandated by the 2015 California Assembly Bill 953 – the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). The mandated RIPA Board (a 19-member Board made up of community advocates, spiritual leaders, academics, attorneys, and law enforcement) works with the CA Department of Justice in the primary goal of RIPA to “…eliminate racial and identity profiling and to improve diversity and racial and identity sensitivity in law enforcement.” Due to RIPA, all law enforcement agencies in CA must collect and submit traffic stop and other data with an expectation that the data will be analyzed for justice. RIPA reports consistently provide information that racial and other profiling occurs in California. Among topics discussed in the roundtable are the limitations and power of RIPA data, board membership, DOJ engagement, community involvement, and the perceived and real power of RIPA. The timeframe of the observations is from 2017 to present day in my capacity as an attendee at RIPA full board and subcommittee meetings.

Author

• Karen S. Glover, California State University, San Marcos