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Oakland Officials Debate Cost Of Police Data Analysis

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- A debate was raging in Oakland Thursday as officials argued over whether the city budget should continue to cover the cost of analyzing data on police stops.

Evidence indicates that Oakland police stop African-American residents more than whites.

Some city council members say it is time to stop mulling over the numbers and start changing how officers make decisions.

The heated exchange at the public hearing focused on whether Oakland should continue spending up to half a million dollars to have a Stanford researcher analyze police-stop data.

Earlier this week, some city council members struck down the contract extension in the public safety meeting.

That made Mayor Libby Schaaf very upset.

"I recognized the frustration of the community that change doesn't come fast enough. But doing nothing will not change the outcome," said Schaaf.

Research shows in the past five years, Oakland police stopped significantly more blacks than whites.

Some community activists argue that the problem is already common knowledge and continuing to collect the data is a waste of money.

"We're not advocating doing nothing. What we're advocating is a shift from data collection to implementation," said Rashidah Grinage with the Coalition for Police Accountability. "What we need is a plan to fix the problem."

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan agrees and says Mayor Schaaf needs to order the police department to change how it conducts police stops.

"People are allowed to spend their time pulling people over without specific cause. And the end result is they do that to black people," said Kaplan.

For example, in 2016, 66.6 percent -- basically two-thirds -- of police stops resulted in no recoveries.

The Stanford professor who analyzed the data said Oakland police stopped blacks mostly for minor offenses.

"What we're asking our officers to do is to use more intelligence. To use information that's coming from our daily briefings that provide them specific information on individuals that were involved in crime," said Oakland Assistant Police Chief Leronne Armstrong.

The city council will get the final say on the contract extension on Tuesday.

The Stanford professor, Mayor Schaaf and Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick held a town hall at Laney College Thursday evening to break down the latest numbers and talk about how to stop racial profiling by officers.

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