The Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) was formed as part of Assembly Bill 953 (Weber, 2016). At the direction of the Legislature, the RIPA Advisory Board is charged to eliminate racial and identity profiling, and improve diversity and racial and identity sensitivity in law enforcement.
The Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD) is required to begin collecting stop data for individuals stopped by police and consensual encounters that resulted in a search. SCPD will collect data for each calendar year and will submit the data to the California Department of Justice on an annual basis.
Data elements collected include demographic information of the stopped individuals that is perceived by the officer. This demographic information consists of race/ethnicity, gender, LGBT identity, age, English fluency, and perceived or known disability. The date, time, location, reason for stop, actions taken, contraband/evidence discovered, property seized, and result of stop are also included in the data collected.
Local law enforcement agencies have met to discuss to develop a plan on how police officers will perform the data collection, staff training, how the information will be stored, responsibilities for submitting the final report and designated an agency AB953 liaison. As part of the SCPD’s commitment to transparency, the raw data will be released to the public annually.
The bill requires SCPD to issue its first RIPA annual report by April 1, 2023.
