A story published on July 12 that examined a five-year period of arrest data in Lewiston and Auburn did not include comments provided to the Sun Journal by Auburn Police Chief Jason Moen. The questions that were asked and his responses are below:
Q: Considering U.S. Census figures estimated the Black African American (alone) population of Auburn as of July 2019 at 1.3 percent of Auburn’s total population, what factors do you believe account for the wide disparity in percentage of arrests of Black men and women?
A: It is important to keep in mind Auburn is a service center for the tri-county area with a large retail and industrial district. The population of Auburn is estimated to swell to over 50,000 daily from the residential population of 23,064 (2018 U.S Census American Community Survey). That said, it’s difficult to compare arrest demographics to community demographics due to the large influx of people daily to work, shop or play in the city.
A good example of this is the anti-shoplifting campaign we conducted in 2019 after the community experienced a dramatic rise in shoplifting cases, driving up the crime rate. The anti-shoplifting campaign directed staff to make physical arrests in all reported adult shoplifting cases as well as a public information campaign regarding shoplifting and the impact on the city’s crime rate. For 2019, 73% of all shoplifting arrests were committed by nonresidents coming to the community to commit crime, specifically retail crimes. In addition, 17.2% of all the arrests for shoplifting in 2019 were black. In the case of a shoplifting arrest, we are responding to a store where loss prevention personnel have detained a subject.
In both 2018 and 2019, 54% of our arrests involved non-residents. When you drill down further into the numbers, in 2018 4.3% of our arrests involved blacks who live in Auburn and 6.1% in 2019.
Q: What factor or factors do you believe explain the significant increase in 2019 custodial arrests of Blacks in Auburn?
A: I believe that our anti-shoplifting campaign played a large part of that increase. 17.2% of our shoplifting arrests were black. We would have to conduct further research, but I believe that if you backed out the shoplifting arrests, the increase would not be as severe.
Q: Do you believe racial profiling has played or is playing any role in the disparity of percentage of custodial arrests of Black people in Auburn?
A: I firmly believe that racial profiling is not a factor in any enforcement action taken by an Auburn Police Officer. As a nationally accredited police department, we have longstanding policies that prohibit Bias Based Profiling. We define bias-based profiling as targeting an individual(s) based solely on a trait common to a group for enforcement action. This includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, socioeconomic status, age, national origin or ancestry or any other group identifier.
As a nationally accredited law enforcement agency, all our staff members undergo training in bias-based profiling issues on a biennial basis. In 2019, officers received training on the following subjects: Implicit Human Biases – Bias Based Policing, Policing Culturally Diverse Community and Awareness of Cultural Diversity. The men and women of the Auburn Police Department hold true to our core values of Honor, Excellence, Loyalty and Professionalism.
Q: Does your department look at these statistics each year and consider changing policing policies as a result?
A: Annually, we conduct a documented administrative review of department practices and citizen complaints/concerns received to ensure that illegal or biased-based profiling is not occurring during operations of this department. In addition to our own internal review and analysis of these important statistics, our agency’s policing practices, policies, and operations are reviewed annually by neutral, third party, professional assessors as part of our ongoing accreditation process.
Q: Are there any departmental policies with respect to race that are being examined today?
A: There are not. During our annual administrative review, we did not find any patterns or trends that would trigger any policy changes.
It should be noted that our anti-shoplifting campaign is a success. In 2019, we saw a 45% decrease in shoplifting incidents as compared to 2018. We are also forecasting over a 10% decrease in our 2019 crime rate as compared to 2018.
The arrest rates of our black youth show the need for more juvenile outreach programs to educate and mentor our kids and serve as an early intervention prior to arrests being made.
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