Racial profiling report stresses training for all

University President Judith Rodin is set to release the long-awaited report on the University of Pennsylvania Police Department and racial profiling today, bringing a more than four-month-long investigation to a close.

The committee's report includes several recommendations which directly affect both the UPPD and the University community as a whole.

Before Rodin received the report last week from Committee Chairman Dennis Culhane, a Social Work professor, she had not decided whether she would make the findings public. Yesterday, she announced that she will release the complete report to the public.

The committee recommended that the Penn Police receive better training with respect to racial profiling and amend the current "bias-based profiling policy" -- which includes racial profiling -- to make it more explicit.

The report was completed by an ad hoc committee formed in response to an Oct. 11 incident involving a Spruce College House associate faculty master. Rui DaSilva, the husband of Director of Latin American and Latino Studies and Spruce College House Faculty Master Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, was pepper-sprayed and arrested by a University Police officer who suspected him of carrying stolen bicycles.

DaSilva, who is black, was in fact delivering donated bicycles to the Quadrangle for student use.

In the 83-page final report, the committee recommended that the University Police increase contact with community members so that those at Penn and the surrounding area are better trained and more aware of UPPD roles, procedures and expectations.

"I asked the ad hoc committee to take on this task, because I believe that it is critical that we, as a community, continue to address concerns about public safety and race, openly and forthrightly, to ensure that all members of our community feel safe," Rodin wrote in a letter to Culhane.

"Your careful consideration of policies, procedures and practices at Penn have provided us with useful recommendations that, I am sure, will help to improve our performance in this area and will result in a stronger and safer Penn community."

In addition to Rodin's letter, the report was accompanied by a response from University Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush. In her response, Rush outlined tactics the Police Department would adopt to deal with the problem of racial profiling.

The committee asked that the UPPD collect more racial profiling-related data and analyze it more regularly and comprehensively. The committee said that the complexity of the issue and lack of available data made it nearly impossible to make a determination about the existence of racial profiling. Whether or not it exists, the report says, the University Police should work to reduce the possibility.

The "presence of bias -- real or perceived -- can threaten the sense of inclusiveness and openness that our institution values so highly," the report noted.

UPPD Police Chief Tom Rambo said the measures would help reduce any perception of unfair bias on behalf of the department.

"These enhancements are certainly going to increase the confidence of the community in this police department," he said.

The report also called for a more accessible complaint process, which Rush said the department frequently revises.

"Data on complaints against police do not indicate that the complaint process is being used by members of the community who suspect that they have been treated differentially on the basis of their perceived characteristics," the report said.

The committee also determined that the UPPD did not achieve the training standards it set for itself by failing to administer yearly diversity and community interaction training for more than two years.

Rush noted, however, that yearly training had resumed, though it had not occurred for some time after Sept. 11, 2001.

"There was a lapse between 2001 and this past year," Rush said. "There are no excuses for this, but part of why it probably happened was because we had 9/11, and much of our time and energy was spent on developing a crisis plan, training our whole Division of Public Safety -- particularly the police -- in drills on emergency response."

She also noted that diversity training was ongoing during the period, though there were no department-wide training sessions dedicated entirely to diversity, but those have since resumed.

Further, the report noted problems when diversity training was administered.

"The committee observed that the stereotyping that the biased-based profiling policy is intended to discourage was inadvertently being taught to officers. Minority groups were distinguished from each other on the basis of stereotypic behaviors, communication styles, potentials for violence and attitudes toward authority," the report said.

Rush explained that training administered by an outside agency -- The Institute for Law Enforcement Administration in Plano, Texas -- was criticized by the committee for the stereotypical content in its training. In response, Rush asked for Culhane to organize a committee to review and develop practices for officer diversity training.

In her written response, Rush explained the measures she would implement to deal with the issues presented in the report.

"A lot of this is building upon programs that were instituted over the years -- not in response to anything, but trying to do a better job to reach out the community," Rush said.

Her initiatives include more explicit policies, better training and more contact with the surrounding community.

Culhane said he is confident that the UPPD will be able to make strides in reducing the potential for racial profiling by officers.

"We certainly hope that they will be effective, but it's the kind of thing that requires persistence and vigilance," Culhane said. "You can't just have a written policy that's correct without implementation [and] you can't have certain implementation without enforcement. All of the pieces have to be there."

"It's totally doable. I think the Police Department can achieve a higher standard in this regard, without a doubt," he added.

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