A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 19-157, regarding the Cambridge Police Department Procedural Justice Dashboard

ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO 125 SIXTH STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02142 TELEPHONE [phone removed] WEB www.cambridgepolice.org FACEBOOK facebook.com/CambridgePolice TWITTER twitter.com/CambridgePolice Louis A. DePasquale City Manager Dr. Branville G. Bard, Jr. Police Commissioner To: City Manager, Louis A. DePasquale From: Police Commissioner, Branville G. Bard, Jr. Date: February 26, 2020 Ref.: Awaiting Report #19-157, dated November 25, 2019 Re: CPD Procedural Justice Dashboard The purpose of this response is to address Awaiting Report #19-157, dated November 25, 2019, whereby the City Manager was requested to report on the status of the Cambridge Police Department’s Procedural Justice Dashboard. The Cambridge Police Department erected its Procedural Justice Section in June of 2018 following budget approval in May of 2018. One of the major functions of the Procedural Justice Section is to monitor data relating to police-citizen interactions for any potential indications of racial profiling or racially biased policing by initially focusing on vehicular stops and later analyzing pedestrian stops and use of force incidents. The manner used is protective of the public and fair to the men and women who enforce the law. Once calculated, the information is to be posted in [near] “real time” via the Department’s Procedural Justice Dashboard. The approval of the Procedural Justice Section created two new positions: The Deputy Superintendent of the Procedural Justice Section and the Procedural Justice Informatics Analyst. The Deputy Superintendent Position was filled near immediately while the Informatics Analyst position was filled in early 2019. Since its assembly and the onboarding of the Informatics Analyst, the Procedural Justice Section has taken many actions towards building the Department’s infrastructure to accommodate the necessary data collection; including but not limited to: (1) conducting a systemic review of CPD’s vehicular data collection methods, (2) revising the existing data collection tool, (3) reviewing CPD’s compliance with completion of data collection tool (4) implementing departmental mechanisms to ensure departmental compliance, (5) reviewing all motor vehicle offenses for internal classification purposes; reviewing all criminal offenses under Massachusetts’ General Laws (MGL) for internal classification purposes, (6) formalizing the weighted algorithm using statistical software (in-house), as well as many other actions. Over the course of developing the apparatus to conduct the complex series of simple computations in- house [once data is collected, it would then have to be manually placed into a statistical software and the results manually uploaded into the Procedural Justice Dashboard] a local company, upon hearing about the intended purpose of the Procedural Justice Section, built a solution to automate the process.

ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO 125 SIXTH STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02142 In my opinion, where “full transparency and accuracy” is the desired aim, an automated solution is the best option. Whereas the initial vision was to post data in real time, the automated solution provides an added feature of having interactive capabilities. The advent of the automated solution has caused an unexpected shift away from the manual process and requires the assistance and technical support of the Public Safety Information Technology (PSIT) team. After a protracted series of meetings, a Computer-Aided Dispatch study, technological specifications checks, etc., we have identified a modern public safety software platform that best meets our needs and operational demands in developing a fully automated dashboard-based reporting system. The Department in conjunction with PSIT is ready to acquire the technology that provides this automated solution; this acquisition will replace the Departments Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management systems (RMS). This is a serious undertaking and will surely take several months to complete (estimated 6-9 months). A corresponding appropriation request will accompany this response. The Department has requested that the automated process be incorporated and activated as early in the implementation process as feasible. It is my hope that the Procedural Justice Dashboard be fully implemented in the first half of 2020 and publishing data shortly thereafter. Currently the Informatics Analyst position is vacant. We have posted this position and will be looking for a candidate with a strong understanding of procedural justice, statistical research, and how data analysis methods can be used to evaluate the bias in policing. It is our intention to have this vacancy filled in the next couple months. I hope you find this response satisfactory, and if there are any additional questions, information needed or concerns regarding this matter, please let me know. Sincerely, Dr. Branville, G. Bard, Jr. Police Commissioner