The findings in this assessment should be interpreted alongside context about the demographics of local residents, the demographics of sworn officers, and the department’s work toward racial equity. This section contains information on departmental initiatives related to equitable policing practices and police-community relations that was input directly by the department through a survey. San Diego Police Department submitted its responses to the context survey on October 30, 2020.
San Diego (City), CA 2021
DEPARTMENTAL CONTEXT
RESIDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
The population of San Diego, California is 43% White, 30% Latinx, 16% Asian, 6.2% Black, 3.6% Multiple Racial Groups, 0.4% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 0.2% Native. The total population of San Diego, California is 1,398,795.
These city demographics were taken from Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2018 five-year estimates. See the Data Notes tab for information on how CPE defines racial groups, including which groups are included in “Other,” if applicable.
Note: This assessment may not include some Census-defined racial groups (“Multiple Racial Groups” and/or “Other”) which make up a small share of the total resident population and are not used in our analyses of policing data (see the Data Notes tab for more information on how we analyze small racial groups). In February 2022, we updated our reporting to include all resident population data, including such smaller groups. The results of that change on this assessment’s findings was minimal, and therefore we did not update the data contained here.
OFFICER DEMOGRAPHICS
These demographics were provided by the department as of October 2020.
ABOUT THIS ASSESSMENT
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department joined CPE’s National Justice Database project in September 2019. SDPD shared data with CPE in order to receive analyses intended to support community and law enforcement collaboration on data-informed efforts to enhance equity in public safety. This assessment analyzes use of force, traffic stop, and non-traffic stop data from 2016-2020.
DEPARTMENT SUMMARY OF ITS KEY INITIATIVES
San Diego Police Department (SDPD) has recently updated its policies on stops, use of force, racial profiling, data collection, and data quality assurance. In addition, SDPD has implemented new training programs, programs to elicit community input on department policies/practices, and programs to reduce use of force or promote equity or community trust.
DEPARTMENT SUMMARY OF ITS RACIAL EQUITY INITIATIVES
While SDPD has been voluntarily collecting, studying, and implementing policy recommendations related to traffic stop data for 20 years, the enactment of the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) required further substantial changes.
RIPA required SDPD to move beyond collecting 10-15 data points related to traffic stops. This legislative mandate, which was implemented by SDPD on June 27, 2018, requires officers to document and submit comprehensive information on all of their stops, including those involving people. Data points now collected are the following: date, time, location, and duration of the stop; “perceived” subject information of the person stopped, detained, searched or arrested; reasons provided for the stop, detention, or search, along with a brief narrative description of those reasons; event actions; basis of the search and associated narrative; contraband or evidence discovered, basis for property seizure and types of property seized; and final result of the stop or detention. The data collected per RIPA regulations, which can be upwards of 50 data points, must be reported to the DOJ for annual analysis.
To ensure compliance with RIPA’s legal requirements, Chief David Nisleit communicated clear expectations via a video that all sworn members of the Department were ordered to view. Additionally, the Department updated its procedures, developed practices to inspect and audit data being collected for accuracy, acquired new technology, and developed training related to RIPA’s provisions. SDPD also determined it was necessary to collect data beyond the RIPA’s mandate, and ordered officers to collect stop data associated with all field interviews.
More recently, the department implemented a best practice recommendation from the RIPA Board related to its Non-Biased Based Policing Policy, which calls for enhanced training related to implicit bias and bias by proxy, along with reinforcing that enforcement actions are permitted only on established legal standards.
Other recent operational changes made to reduce stops and promote equity include having the Department’s Special Operations Unit (SOU) engage in intelligence led policing over stop driven saturation patrols, having the Neighborhood Policing Team engage in progressive enforcement of observed violations, and limiting enforcement contacts made with Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) personnel. SDPD believes CPE’s analysis will produce actionable items and recommendations outside those already implemented.
DEPARTMENT SUMMARY OF ITS COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVES
The department maintains a community policing philosophy, which is centered upon continual engagement and participates in, on average, 171 community meetings a month. These meetings include the following: open houses, coffee with a cop, holiday parties, and other events for community members. These interactions allow SDPD to personally communicate and answer questions related to new programs and policy changes, along with hearing expectations from community members in every neighborhood.
The department’s Media Services Unit, MSU, augments these extensive personal communication efforts by utilizing social media platforms to conduct community outreach. In under a year, the department’s reach on Facebook went from 20,000 viewers to a peak of 1.6 million viewers, along with expanding its reach across other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and NextDoor. The department has over 385,000 followers on NextDoor.
Social media reach is essential, particularly when public concerns about police operational practices or controversial uses of force spark civil unrest. In enables SDPD’s Media Services Unit the ability to convey factual information quickly and share detailed perspectives about police operations to audiences that would often be unreachable through traditional approaches like presentations at city council meetings and press conferences. The department still conducts traditional outreach; however, it believes it is capable of much more and publicly posts its policies and training materials online for community review.
By being responsive and transparent through its community messaging, the Department is able to show it is holding itself accountable. This enhances SDPD’s credibility and facilitates community trust. Community input and active collaborations, like those with the Citizens Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations and the Community Review Board, have also produced significant procedural changes related to polices. Since June 2020, SDPD has analyzed recommendations from these community groups that led to the implementation of stand-alone procedures for de-escalation practices and provided guidance on an officer’s duty to intervene if unreasonable uses of force are observed. The Department also banned the carotid restraint, which further addressed community concerns related to the safety of this force application and its disproportionate use in minority communities.