The Montgomery County Police Department complies with new federal standards on racial and ethnic data collection but needs more money and staffing to truly collect, interpret and compare that data.
During Monday’s Montgomery County Council Public Safety Committee meeting, several members of the police force told councilmembers that obtaining and reporting on detailing is not an easy process.
The federal government recently changed its reporting standards, which are determined by the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
There is a need for more reporting and “friendlier dashboards” that make the information easily accessible, said Susan Farag, the council’s legislative assistant.
Although police ask 911 callers to self-identify, they have the right not to respond. According to police officials, just asking callers their race or ethnicity can breed resentment as they may think the police will respond more quickly for some groups than others.
“It only adds to more negativity,” Assistant Police Chief Darren Francke told committee members.
MCP would like to contact people through text messages following an incident. At that time, police would ask how they did, send information and forms the individuals might need and ask about their demographics.
However, purchasing programs that will allow this is expensive, Francke said. “The reality is the funding isn’t there.”
According to Francke, if someone chooses not to self-identify, “the officer can assume, but that’s not great.”
Added Councilmember Kristin Mink, “The data continues to be collected. We’re just doing it on the officer’s best assumption. This is the best we can do under the system we have.”
Said Councilmember Sidney Katz, committee chair, “We are trying to do the right thing.”
According to a report submitted to the committee, “The MCPD crime incident dataset does not include any victim demographic information such as age, gender, or race/ethnicity. Such data is critical for understanding crime trends across demographic groups and for informing public policy decisions. This is another significant gap in MCPD’s data reporting.”
The report noted that during 2022, almost 60% of all use of force incidents involved Blacks. There were 1,415 use of force incidents, and 846 involved Blacks. 288 involved Hispanics, and 222 involved Whites.
Police Chief Marcus Jones stressed that statistics in the report should not be compared to the previous years as the requirements for reporting changed.
