Race, ethnicity no longer used in DPS crime alerts

[lostinblue 1,989]

The Department of Public Safety has altered its policy on racial descriptions for crime alerts over the past year, excluding suspects’ race in every campus alert since October 2015.

In an email to The Herald, Chief of Police Mark Porter and Deputy Chief of Police Paul Shanley maintained that this does not constitute a policy change, though nearly all publicly available crime alerts before that date mention a suspect’s race to some degree.

“We have no formal Department of Public Safety policy in place that either prohibits the inclusion of race or mandates that race be included in suspect descriptions,” Porter and Shanley wrote. As a matter of practice, the department includes the categorization only when there is certainty with regard to race or if it “adds value as part of a complete and thorough description” of a suspect, they added.

With race excluded, notifications typically include a suspect’s gender, age, build and general appearance.

Using a suspect’s race in a crime alert may be unnecessary for a number of reasons, including possible confusion in racial identification and the fact that “vague descriptions can reinforce stereotypes,” Porter and Shanley wrote. These stereotypes can foster hostility toward some members of the community, they added.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/09/07/race-ethnicity-no-longer-used-in-dps-crime-alerts/

[TBoneTX 43,020]

There nevertheless remains a difference between "profiling" and "description of the suspect."

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

The Department of Public Safety has altered its policy on racial descriptions for crime alerts over the past year, excluding suspects’ race in every campus alert since October 2015.

In an email to The Herald, Chief of Police Mark Porter and Deputy Chief of Police Paul Shanley maintained that this does not constitute a policy change, though nearly all publicly available crime alerts before that date mention a suspect’s race to some degree.

“We have no formal Department of Public Safety policy in place that either prohibits the inclusion of race or mandates that race be included in suspect descriptions,” Porter and Shanley wrote. As a matter of practice, the department includes the categorization only when there is certainty with regard to race or if it “adds value as part of a complete and thorough description” of a suspect, they added.

With race excluded, notifications typically include a suspect’s gender, age, build and general appearance.

Using a suspect’s race in a crime alert may be unnecessary for a number of reasons, including possible confusion in racial identification and the fact that “vague descriptions can reinforce stereotypes,” Porter and Shanley wrote. These stereotypes can foster hostility toward some members of the community, they added.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/09/07/race-ethnicity-no-longer-used-in-dps-crime-alerts/

I know, it's a problem for you.

There nevertheless remains a difference between "profiling" and "description of the suspect."

Not for some folks. Us normals know this.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Maybe they should cut out height and weight etc to make sure no one is offended