There's a dispute between Boston Police and the ACLU of Massachusetts over the findings of a study into the department's stop-and-frisk policies.
The issues is whether Boston Police apply the tactic disproportionately depending on a person's race.
Wednesday, the ACLU went public with a report on stop-and-frisk, and, according to the ACLU, young black men were more likely than white men of the same age to be targeted for police-civilian encounters, including stop-and-frisk, searches, being observed and being interrogated. The ACLU said that when they police-civilian encounters happened, black males were more likely to be frisked or searched than white males and black males were more likely to be targeted for repeat encounters.
The Boston Police Department countered the ACLU, saying that police practices were not based on race, but were focused on high crime areas and individuals with gang affiliations and criminal records.
Carol Rose, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, joined Broadside to talk more about the report. The Boston Police Department was asked to take part, but they declined to send a representative.
"It's important to understand that the BPD-appointed researchers who did this study, they controlled for crime, they controlled for gang membership, and even after you ruled out high crime neighborhoods, gang membership, there are still significant racial disparities and that's the number that people are concerned about," she said.
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