Racist memes by California cops. Discriminatory arrests. Audit details bias in law enforcement
While wrapping up a traffic stop at a parking lot, a Stockton police officer walked over to a different parked car with a Black man sitting inside.
The officer asked the man something he hadn’t asked the non-Black driver in the initial traffic stop: “Are you on probation or parole or anything?”
When the man declined to answer or provide identification, the officer detained him and searched his car, finding nothing illegal. Then, after the man refused to leave the parking lot, Stockton police officers arrested him and towed his car.
A Stockton Police Department investigation into the incident found it was an unlawful arrest, and the agency sent letters of reprimand to the officers. But the department did not discipline the officers or issue corrective action related to bias or professionalism.
It’s one of a number of cases described in a new state audit published Tuesday that found California law enforcement agencies and state prisons fail to do enough to crack down on racial bias and harassment.
The audit focused on policies and incidents at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the San Bernardino Police Department, San Jose Police Department, the Stockton Police Department and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
It found the five departments do not provide frequent enough training to mitigate officer bias, struggle to investigate and address biased conduct, lack effective intervention systems to stop officers who display a pattern of bias, overlook signs of implicit bias or subtler signs of bias, and fail to review officers’ social media presence.
The agencies also lack sufficient strategies to achieve representative diversity in hiring, and fail to seek feedback from the community, the audit found.
Departments were aware of incidents where bias may have influenced an officer’s conduct because they were documented in department investigation files. But the four local departments “often did not take appropriate action to recognize and address possibly biased conduct after it had occurred,” state auditors found.
“None of the departments we reviewed have fully developed and implemented comprehensive efforts to address bias among their officers,” the state audit found. “Without a comprehensive approach to guard against the presence and effects of bias, the departments will be less able to identify, mitigate, and address bias.”
Within each department, state auditors found officers “who have promoted negative stereotypes and engaged in biased conduct.”
In one undated case, an officer filmed Black incarcerated individuals from a distance and narrated, “Black Lives Matter,” and in a separate video, used the n-word several times while repeating song lyrics and said in a sarcastic tone, “For George Floyd.” That officer received a temporary pay reduction, according to the state audit.
In another undated case, San Jose police officers responding to a dispute between a landlord and tenant made biased comments about the landlord, who they knew was Vietnamese.
After denying her request for a translator and insisting that the landlord return the deposit in cash, one officer said, “Maybe she doesn’t have the money, who knows? I think she has a problem gambling,” and detained her.
The department later determined bias related to the landlord’s race influenced the officer’s behavior, and issued a 40-day suspension without pay.
Bias in California cops’ social media
As part of its investigation, state auditors reviewed the public social media accounts of 450 officers and found 13 officers who posted biased statements while working as peace officers — seven in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, three in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and three in the San Bernardino Police Department.
Examples of biased statements officers shared on social media include a transphobic meme, an anti-Mulsim post related to 9/11, and a post that included the statement, “Over 620,000 white people died to free Black slaves. And still to this day not even 1 thank you and we’re now known as racists.”
“When an officer engages in biased conduct or makes statements like those we describe in this section, it casts doubt on that officer’s ability to treat individuals fairly,” the state audit read.
Some officers promoted extremist groups
While the state audit did not find officers who were members of hate groups based on their social media activity, auditors identified six people who either publicly defended or promoted content from “problematic groups.”
One officer defended the Proud Boys, a far-right group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center where “rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.”
Another officer had a profile picture that was an image representing the Three Percenters, an extremist group with some followers who promote hate against and engage in violent acts toward Muslim people, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
One officer liked a social media account representing a group that “publicly expressed animosity toward immigrants,” and another promoted claims that same-sex parents are harmful to children.
“The biased conduct that we identified at the five law enforcement departments likely occurred in part because the departments have not fully implemented comprehensive strategies for addressing bias within their organizations,” the state audit found.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Racist memes by California cops. Discriminatory arrests. Audit details bias in law enforcement."