Rhode Island Racial and Ethnic Minorities Disparities Project

This report is a summary of public attitudes and perceptions towards the Rhode Island State Police. The report was also commissioned by the State Police. Primarily, this report stems from a series of telephone survey interviews that were conducted May 5-9, 2001 . Data was randomly collected from 372 people who reported having some interaction with the state police during the year 2000. Interviewers were interested in talking with people who had received a traffic citation, filed an accident report, or contacted the State Police to report an incident or offense. The intent of the interview was to examine how the public viewed the State Police in regards to factors which include courtesy, demeanor, response time, knowledge, clarity, sense of fairness, and overall service ratings. Individuals were also asked to offer any suggestions for improving highway safety. The report opens with an executive summary followed by the methodology and overall assessment. Then there are sections that have mini synopsis of tables that breakdown the collected information by sex, race, age, state residence, barracks, and type of contact. Finally, the report concludes by prefacing the suggestions that appear in the appendixes. It should also be noted that the margin of error in the survey is around plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Major Findings

The majority of the responses from the interviews suggest that the public are reasonably satisfied with the performances of the State Police. For example, 92 percent of the respondents felt that the officer(s) they dealt with was pretty professional. Moreover 83 percent gave the State Police an excellent or good rating overall. When controlling for gender and race, the results suggest that there were no significant differences in assessments of the state police. However, there were some differences observed. Whites were more likely to give excellent then good ratings whereas minorities were most likely to give good then excellent marks. Minorities were also twice as likely as Whites to rate the State Police as only fair. When controlling for age, it was found that younger individuals were more likely to say their treatment was fair than senior citizens. When looking at the responses by type of contact with the police, it was found that overall service ratings were higher for accident and incident reports than traffic citations, 84 verses 77 percent. Another interesting factor to consider was that more males were interviewed females. When looking at the suggestions offered for improving highway safety, a significant proportion of individuals responded with one of two responses, either stating that there was a need for more patrols or that the state police are doing a good job. Occasional respondents stated that there was a need for racial profiling to stop as well as for better treatment of individuals.

Unaddressed issues or concerns

One area of interest that is not discussed in detail in this report, are the residential demographics of respondents. Inclusion of this factor might enhance this analysis. The suggestions listed in the appendix of the report suggest that further research needs to be done. It would prove beneficial for analysis if there was a correlation between the types of suggestions offered as well as demographics of the individuals answering the questions. As for the few respondents that touched upon the issue of racial profiling and the harassment of individuals, it would be of valuable worth if the race of these individuals were recorded in the report. Being that very few minority individuals were respondents of the survey, the question of whether the results would have been different had more minorities been included in the survey remains. Overall, the issue of racial profiling is overlooked in this report. If detail to race was given more weight, a deeper analysis could have been made. The discussion pertaining to prejudice, stereotyping, and police profiling that Wilson et al. discuss in the article "Prejudice in Police Profiling" is useful when attempting to comprehend the correlation between race and response ( Wilson , 897).

Reference List

Wilson, George, Roger Dunham and Geoffrey Alpert. March 2004. "Prejudice in Police Profiling: Assessing an Overlooked Aspect in Prior Research." American Behavioral Scientist 47 (7): 896-909

Howto Access Report
www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/
polreports/StatePoliceReport.html