 Great. Good morning everyone. Took time to come and visit us today. This morning I was reading an article in the paper and stated that Chief White changed his mind about data collection. So let me set the record straight. I didn't change my mind about data collection. I was never opposed to data collection. I think what my issue or my concern was that we needed to do it in a way that was effective, that was meaningful, that was productive, and it was something that could be managed within our budget and it's something that we could do to technology. With that being said, and realizing the challenges that were associated with that, I had to initially suggest that we waited until the state of California I believe is mandating that they do data collection and one of the departments, one or a couple of the departments there that's doing it has the same record management system that we use. So my preference was to wait until they did it and we reached out to the vendor by the way and I'm sorry right now I can't think of the name of the vendor but we can get that for you at some point. We reached out to the vendor and asked him if they would be willing to do a similar process as a related data collection for us here at the Denver County Police Department and they expressed some interest in doing that but they wanted to deal with the California piece first and knowing that if in fact they did that it would have been done through technology which would have made it much more efficient for the officers as it relates to time and probably more thorough because we've been able to collect all the data at one central location and being able to extract the usefulness of the data and it would have been a lot less expensive. I think I had stated that at a community meeting a couple months ago but since then and given what has occurred around our nation as it relates to police actions, as it relates to police officers losing their lives, also as it relates to individuals losing their lives at the hand of police not addressing if it was controversial or not but the fact that it certainly has gotten my attention and gotten the attention of many of our residents in our community and gotten the attention of people around this country. I had made a decision to say you know what I think we need to get in front of the California search, the California effort which is not to 2018 so I had directed and in concert with the executive director of safety I had directed my staff to start looking at a way that we can collect this data certainly way prior to 2018 and that's kind of what we're in the process of doing. Questions. What's this going to cost? That's we're in the process of determining that I mean obviously that's one of one of the variables you know I mean course is a variable but what's really kind of important to me and I think what's important to our residents is we want to collect the right data we wanted to be meaningful data and we want to make some sense out of it so you know I'm obviously I'm concerned about the course but I'm probably more concerned about it being done efficiently effectively and timely also you know if it's going to take another 10 minutes for every stop to every stop to collect data and they're making 20 and 30 stops a day that's a lot of time being taken away when they should be out there protecting and patrolling those neighborhoods so that's why the efficiency and the effectiveness part of it is really important to me and why I spoke to that earlier why I suggested that we wait until California get theirs done and we just piggyback off of off of what they're doing because we had that similar we had the same record management system that will be able to collect that an efficient effective in a very inexpensive way. Chief can you clarify when you say collect data what do you mean who's going to collect the data is it all officers traffic can you just explain yeah what what and again this is evolving but what I suspect is certainly all traffic stops of traffic violations all pedestrian stops that we have with individuals and when I say pedestrian stops of contacts of a suspicious suspicious nature then there have been some to say that we should collect data on every contact that we have and we should be asking for the gender to sex the date of birth so if I have a casual conversation with you on the corner that has nothing to do with any kind of suspicious activity I don't think it would be in our best interest for me to ask you what your race is what your date of birth is what your what your gender is that would be offensive but if it's done under some suspicious activity then perhaps it would make a little bit more sense how about you because I covered that hearing at the legislature and I think you guys were opposed to that just because of the cost when they wanted to launch a statewide thing and one of the things they talked about was is how do you do that you can't force people to say I mean that you said it's offensive for an officer to say to somebody well what's your race so now you're relying on the officers and their judgment I mean how would you envision maybe a perfect system well well I don't know if there's so much offensive to the officers I think it might be offensive to the individuals that were that were stopping but if we're stopping you under suspicious circumstances it might be more practical to do that but if I got a group of officers talking to a group of young men who's playing basketball in an effort just to kind of communicate and ask each of them that that information that that would be offensive and I doubt if they would give it and I and I think it's that's not community policing it might be uncommunity policing so it has to be done in the under the right scenario so those are the things that we're that we're talking about I will also tell you there are departments that does data collection and some of them will actually mention in the article we're going to reach out to every last one of those departments we're going to have a copy of the of the auditor's report and his thoughts as relates to data collection I'm also a member of the perfect executive board police executive research they have some thoughts on exact on data collection so we're going to reach out to all of those sources and and put them and obviously we have some thoughts how should be done and look at what they what they have done when there's some common things that we think that are effective and efficient that will probably be part of the policy that we generate then maybe once we generate this policy obviously we're going to have to reach out to some some in the community to say this is where we want to go so you I mean if you have an opinion you want to share we're willing to listen to what you have to say do you envision a situation like say I get stuck in a traffic stop and there's a box where the officer then would have to check what they thought my we're talking race to race I mean already talking race preference yeah again it is evolving but yeah I from effective and efficient it needs to be something that can be done through technology so the all-circ and makes the traffic stop and then we'll simply be able to get back into his car and hopefully through his computer click the box to say this is where I made the stop this is why the stop was made this is the race of the individual and this is how long the stop took something along those lines so we'll be the officer making the judgment not necessarily well that's that's the initial thought but that very well my chain again this is this is evolving and obviously I need to I need to look at some of the other practices effective practices of data collection that's going on around the country and get the the the the perspective of some people that are experts in that field and so based on after collecting that information my initial thoughts of who should identify the race of individual versus the officer or the or the particular individual that variable might be changed yes yes I mean we actually there there are a lot of number one there's a complaint process you have a monitor who people can go directly to and express concerns we monitor all says behavior we have early warning tracking system that tracks all says behavior it can track anything that you can set up for it can track accidents it can track complaints but for the sake of this conversation it tracks complaints it can track the number of stops it all says make so we do have mechanisms they can monitor what an officer is doing but they're not done in a centralized location that specifically can focus on stops for traffic stops for accident stops for arrest and they all and they're in different locations so we need to we need to have all this information focalized at one central point so we can do an analysis of it well that I that I don't want to comment on because if I comment on it someone's gonna say that I've already formed a reception so it's gonna show the facts how's that that might be the best answer yes ma'am how you doing today hadn't seen you in a while good well I think obviously my initial thought was to have this underway by the end of the year but again that's going to depend on how much information we get from other other sources so why I would like to see it in place by the end of the year that's that's tentative in clear and collecting the data I think this was done as a young man has stated I think it was done about 10 years ago it was over a two-year process so obviously we're gonna have to collect it over some time to validate the accuracy of the information how long how long we're gonna have to do it to verify it's if it's doubt if it's validated not that I don't have the answer to but I suspect it will get that also as we can gather other information from other sources that have done it more recent than we have that's a possibility but my preference probably would be that just to do it department-wise yeah what'd you see from California that you're gonna model emulate how that work what what are you actually actually don't like well actually what what the thought while I was waiting for California is because the state has mandated it be done and all in law enforcement okay and they gave them I thought they gave them to 2017 but actually I think they gave them to 2018 and that's just too in light of all the things that have been occurring and the need for us to be transparent I don't want to wait I don't want to wait that long but what I really wanted to piggyback from California was I wanted to be able to use the technology that they're using maybe not so much what they're collecting because I don't know what they're gonna be collecting I haven't taken the time to do that but I know that they have a some of those departments have the same rocket management system that we have and collecting it through a rocket management system makes it just that much more efficient and effective and you can model it in that record management system to do whatever you want to what to collect whatever you wanted to collect so that was real much that was my real interest for for waiting into California had gotten into place Colorado's mandated that no California mandated that right besides the big cities like you know New York LA Chicago they're using this are there other smaller departments that that you're sort of looking at sure yeah I'm sure they're they're smaller departments and we'll be looking at a litany of departments I just mentioned those four just because those four were were mentioned in the article and one might perceive that is being done effective and efficient there that's yet to be known we're gonna we're gonna collect that as well as collect other departments also as well as talk to individuals are pretty much the experts in the field as it as it relates to that well first of all we have to see what the information is saying and I think the one thing it helps us as it speaks to what I think is critically important speaks to transparency you know I can't say there's a result of this we're gonna we're gonna get a better outcome I mean hopefully the information will show that we're that we're not doing any any kind of profiling but but I think at the very least it will speak to the our commitment to being transparent and and if it shows positive I think that's a lot of credibility for department if it doesn't show favorable then we have a responsibility to correct it and I'm 100% committed in correcting it to anyone who who who actions might have it might not have been appropriate who is going to in terms of the transparency so is this going to go to sort of like a third party for analysis or are you guys going to keep the data and release it and analyze it how about great great question again we hadn't gotten that far yet can you imagine this affecting policing in any way that the officer on the street is now aware that numbers are being tracked with regard to who he stops who he encounters and that he may just be doing his job but these numbers are going to say that maybe he's targeting it in ethnicity do you have any concerns in that yeah I mean and you know what that's that's that's a great point and I'm not going to say that there there won't be a handful of officers that might to be of that opinion but I think if we really explain it you know not just explain it to to the media to the to the public through the media but explain it to the men and women our police department understanding the environment that we and understanding the importance of of doing this I would feel comfortable that the great majority will be on board and understand that you know you know I gotta be honest with you my my concern is I want to do as little as possible to take away for from them being out in that community providing the services I mean that's really kind of important and that's a come I was so locked in on on on the on the California thing because I know that through a rugged management system the timeliness of it the efficiency of it and the effectiveness of it without that system there's there are a lot of challenges and we're dealing with we're dealing with some of those challenges right now but but again I along with the mayor and certainly the director of safety are committed at this point that this is something that we need to do we just got to figure out the most effective way to do it and she had you though like I said at the state hearing they talked about because it trickles up to the courts to a certain extent so if you change your tickets then that changes the way they do things over you know at the core I mean would this have to be an integrated thing or with this maybe do you see it being sort of just a separate form they fill out and again I mean that speaks to the technology that's that's part of the challenges that we needed that we needed to get to I mean and obviously I've talked to a couple legislators when they actually want to do it and to be honest with you how they wanted to do it just wasn't practical at the time so it wasn't that I or I did not only to speak for other police sheets but there were other police sheets that weren't opposed to it it's just that the way that they wanted to do it just wasn't practical so you know best case scenario once we get this done maybe this can be a model for others who have a desire to do it in our state this may have gone past me so I apologize but just for clarification you're leaning toward an officer making that judgment him or herself as opposed to asking the person I don't know if that would be compulsory for that answer no no I'm initially because I wanted to be as non-intrusive as possible on the individual that we're stopping okay so initially I gave some thought to the officer can form the opinion of what the race of the individual is but again I want to get I want to collect more information from other resources from other sources that are doing it and if it proves to be more effective for it to be done where we ask the individual then I am not opposed to do that so again I mean really what I'm sure what you today is there is the need to do that and we're committed to doing that exactly how are we going to do that we're still working through the nuances of determining the most effective way of doing it we've had cases in which minorities are stopped and it's actually happened to me where I'll be listed as Caucasian on a ticket or something like that we've backgrounded people we know that Hispanic or Black will say something else on it is there any concern about any inaccuracies if the officers are the ones using you know the discretion as well yeah and I mean and that's something that we certainly need to consider and certainly did some it's certainly something that we're gonna get within a way you know it one more question guys she's got to go I have one I apologize for why you get but sort of piggybacking on what he said how do you reassure I mean it would seem to me that certain officers in certain precincts or cars at certain times of the day or night might run into more minority people more Caucasian people than others how do you ensure that you know what I mean and so if you just look at the raw data people like oh no this guy's terrible I mean how should the officers that there'll be fairness so if I if I have a precinct and in 80% of the people that are in my precinct is of a particular race so good possibility 80% of the stops I'm gonna make is gonna be of that race so that doesn't mean that I'm profiling so obviously I mean us as managers I mean we know where we're signing officers and we know that the demographics of the areas that they're working in okay but if I have a precinct and 80% is of a particular race and I'm stopping only 10% of those and I'm stopping 80% of another race then that raises the antenna say we got to take a little deeper dive in this I mean so we know the demographics of where we're signing officers and so I so I think we'll be able to do a fair assessment of exactly what's occurring and the other thing that's really important also and I've done data processing our data collection in other departments I've worked in before I mean not only do we want to see when people are getting stopped and while they're getting stopped we want to see the outcome of the stop see that's really important I can say that I stopped I stopped 10 people for the same reasons but the outcome for this five because of their race is different than the outcome for that five so that's important also so we got I mean not only you won't be transparent but we want to be thorough and and we wanted to be meaningful and we want to be able to attach the incidents to the particular officers that are conducting the behavior and rather is going to take an outside person to do that to speak to transparency I'm not opposed to it rather something that we should do I'm not opposed to it but again I mean this is I think the importance of me meeting with you today is there's a commitment to make it happen and to make it happen sooner sooner than later but there's still a lot of unanswered questions that need to be resolved before we can actually unveil it you know hopefully not but it might again I just can't speak to I gotta see I gotta see what else we're collecting again a I really appreciate everybody's taking time to come thank you guys thank you all right