Racial profiling by Mill Valley police debated

Marinscope

Mark Twain once said that “facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”

That became clear at a recent Mill Valley City Council meeting in which the stats on possible racial bias with police stops came to the fore. 

At issue was an analysis of police stops by the Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment. The activist group said their report indicated people “driving while Black” are stopped at 6.5 times the rate of white drivers. The police department contended the analysis was skewed because it compared the stops to the racial makeup of Mill Valley only instead of the larger region. 

Despite the fundamental disagreement over how to look at the statistics, Mayor Jim Wickham called the discussion “beneficial” to Mill Valley.