COMMISSION ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC FAIRNESS
IN THE
CRIMINAL AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
AUGUST MEETING
MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT: Keith Hamilton, Chairing Meeting John Adams Haruko Moriyasu Paul Boyden Sheriff Brad Slater Scott Carver for Mike Chabries Anthony Smith Sid Groll Joan Smith David Biggs Deidre Tyler Dan Maldonado Judge Tyrone Medley Ed McConkie Carolina Webber	STAFF PRESENT: Jah-Juin Ho
MEMBERS ABSENT: Dan Becker Judge William Thorne Cmsnr Bob Flowers Michael Zimmerman Leticia Medina John T. Nielsen Joe Tafua	GUESTS PRESENT: Mike Haddon, CCJJ Larry Houston, Advisory Council

Lunch was served. Special thanks to the Bar Association for sponsoring lunch. Minutes from the Commission April and this August meeting will be reviewed at our October 1 meeting.

* The Advisory Council and communities' concerns on House Bill 101 were addressed. There as been many questions/ confusion within the communities as to the purpose and intent of the Racial Profiling Law. At the Aug 19^th Advisory Council it was suggested that a "fact sheet" about the profiling law be made for distribution through the State Ethnic Affairs Offices and other agencies.

* Carolina made a formal motion for the "Commission to create a fact sheet about the Racial Profiling Law, to be distributed to communities." The motion was seconded by Scott Carver and approved unanimously.

* David Biggs had mentioned that there will be Racial Profiling Symposium on September 5 and that he and Ed McConkie would be participating on the panel discussion.

* Judge Medley raised the question of what could be done across the population as a whole to raise awareness on the profiling law. He stated that though the fact sheet was a good start, it should not be the last effort made by the Commission on this issue.

* Joan Smith raised additional concerns from the Advisory Council meeting. It had been mentioned that some DMV offices may be actively telling citizens that they do not have to fill out their racial data.

* Ed McConkie stated that CCJJ should not participate in creating the fact sheet for reasons of objectivity.

* Larry Houston introduces himself as co-chair for the executive committee of the Advisory Council. He described the executive committee and stated that they will be making more of a presence and looks forward to working with the Commission.

* Larry also addressed the Advisory Council's concerns about the lack of resources being given to the Commission to function effectively.

* It was suggested by the Advisory Council and subcommittee that each Commission agency create a fact sheet about their organization to be distributed at the subcommittee town hearings. The fact sheets should include relevant contact information. Due to time the Operations Committee will address the fact sheet issue at their next meeting. Ideally agencies should have a fact sheet prepared by the Sept 24^th public hearing.

* An update on the Ogden town meeting, held July 29, was given (a full summary of the town meeting is available for those interested). Carolina also thanked Michael Zimmerman, Diane Hamilton, and Judge Thorne for facilitating at the meeting.

* A piece of positive feedback that came from the meetings was that the complaints process might have improved. One citizen said it was relatively easy for her to file her complaint.

* Carolina has been working with a community member on her complaint with law enforcement. The community member has written a personal statement about her incident and it has been forwarded to Sheriff Slater and the Complaints Process subcommittee. Keith and Leticia will work with the Complaints subcommittee on this issue and do follow up work.

* It was reported that our goal to create a reciprocal exchange of information had been achieved at our Ogden town meeting. The importance of having our commission members present at each town meeting was also stressed.

* Jah-Juin Ho will be creating a complaints form for those individuals that do not wish to speak at the hearing but want their issues addressed.

* The complaints subcommittee is in the process of creating a model complaint form.

* Sid Groll reported that POST has collected complaint forms from departments across the country and that those forms could be used to draw a model complaint form for law enforcement agencies. The challenge will be to move from law enforcement to the entire justice system.

* A panel discussion has been held. The information gathered from the panel as well as Ogden public hearing will be incorporated into the Weber County Sheriff's recruitment plan.

- Task Force Research Recommendation 1, CCJJ has contracted with the University of Utah for a complex Cost/ Benefit model to measure criminal justice programs.

* There are some studies have no status at this time, including Task Force Research Recommendation 9 (establishment of an Indigent Defense Review Council).

* Ed encouraged members to review the research as each study is costly to produce.

* The Utah State Bar will be hosting a Brown v. Board of Education celebration in May 2004 and has invited the Commission and Commission agencies to participate in this event.

* It was noted that this would not only be a good outreach opportunity but that it would also give the Commission publicity.

* The first planning meeting for the celebration will be on Sept 9 at noon. Interested individuals should contact John Adams.

* It was discussed that the annual report should contain critical analysis of agency progress

* Last year's annual report was a self-report by agencies. This year the report needs to have a critical analysis aspect.

* A letter will be sent out to Commission agencies within the next few weeks describing to them what is expected of them.

* It was also reported that due to staffing changes as well as the addition of a critical analysis component, the annual report would probably not be ready by our January 2004 deadline. The tentative release date was projected to be no later than March 2004. Keith made a motion to "postpone the release of our annual report," and it was seconded and passed unanimously.

6. CCJJ Update on the Racial Profiling Law and Preliminary Data (Mike Haddon)

* A brief background on the law was given. DPS is required to collect the data elements. It was noted that though it is not relevant, officers are required to provide their race.

* The preliminary data (Jan- June 2003) is very poor. Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and Weber County are currently not reporting the race of their officers. This is due to incompatibilities within systems. By late 2003- early 2004 this problem should be corrected however.

60% of the data is missing the race of the person stopped. This is the key element being studied and the high percentage of people not reporting is not good.

* DPS will be cracking down and will not allow license lookup until info is input.

* National research groups suggests that in order to do profiling research nine to ten data elements are needed, including: location of stop, type of violation, reason for stop, was a citation or warning given, search, what was the authority for search.

* Paul Boyden asked if we had enough information about the needed data elements to draft a bill.

* Mike noted that the reason law enforcement signed on was because of the minimal effort needed on their part. The needed elements would require officers to input nine to ten additional points per stop.

* Ed noted that though the data is poor there are other methods to reaching the end goal of examining whether or not racial profiling occurs. This includes surveys. Another option would be to concede that the research will not yield any conclusive answers and begin work on a treatment to profiling.

* As a time issue, the Operations Committee will look into this issue further and provide a recommendation to the Commission.

* A brief description of RFPs was given. It is the intent of the DMC to have the Commission and member agencies support RFPs with a culturally sensitive component.

* Dan would provide the Commission and Operations Committee with more information.

* The next Commission meeting will be WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1, 2003. A specific location and meeting reminder will be sent two weeks prior to the meeting. The meeting date was changed from our September 24 date to accommodate law enforcement conferences.

* Our October meeting is scheduled for WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 29, 2003. Members should plan on returning to our schedule of meeting on the 4^th Wed of every month.

NOTE: Ed McConkie and David Biggs will be discussing the Racial Profiling Law at the University of Utah on Sept 5, 2003.