LOS ANGELES — Arrest and booking data from three police departments in Northeast Los Angeles County — the Glendale Police Department, the Pasadena Police Department and the South Pasadena Police Department — showed large disparities in arrests by race, according to an analysis issued Monday by the county Commission on Human Relations.
The report reveals that Black and Latino arrest rates in the suburban cities are much higher than those for Whites and Asians. The county commission also determined that cash bail disparately impacts Black and Latino arrestees, who are more likely to be given jail time for similar offenses committed by White and Asian arrestees.
In addition, data obtained from the three police agencies through public records requests show that arrests cluster especially around major commercial centers in the cities, except for arrests for violent crimes, which cluster in areas with higher Black and Latino populations.
Further, disparate arrest trends based on race/ethnicity are primarily driven by misdemeanor offense arrests, including drug offenses reclassified by Prop. 47.
Passed in 2014, the measure made simple drug possession a much less serious charge than in previous years.
“For decades, local police accountability efforts have been focused primarily on the big three metropolitan police departments in Los Angeles County — L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Police Department, and Long Beach Police Department,” according to the report.
“Consequently, important information about small to mid-sized police departments, especially those in suburban cities, often has been overlooked. This report is a preliminary effort to remedy this omission by surveying the data collection landscape for suburban police departments, uncovering potential disparities in enforcement actions, and illustrating the need for parity.”
The report found that all three suburban police departments had an arrest rate of between 40 and 42 per…
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