7 11 17 City Council Proceedings Official_Special CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in special session at 6:00 p.m. on July 11 , 2017 in the
Historic Federal Building, 350 W. 6th Street.
Present: Mayor Buol; Council Members Connors, Del Toro, Lynch, Rios; City Manager
Van Milligen, City Attorney Brumwell
Absent: Council Members Jones and Resnick
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called
for the purpose of conducting a work session on the St. Ambrose University Traffic Stop
Study Analysis.
WORK SESSIONS
St. Ambrose University Traffic Stop Study Analysis.
Police Chief Mark Dalsing introduced Dr. Chris Barnum, MCJ Program Director of St.
Ambrose University (SAU) who was contracted to conduct an independent traffic study
focusing on evaluating stops made by the Dubuque Police Department (DPD) between
January 1 , 2015 and December 31 , 2015. The study centered on two broad categories of
discretionary police conduct:
1 . racial disparity in vehicle stops - instantiated as racial differences in the likelihood
of being stopped by the DPD.
2. dissimilarities across racial demographics in the outcome or disposition of a stop.
The study's methodology includes using multiple sources of data to establish baselines
on population. Included in this data is the use of point-in-time traffic counts. SAU used a
diverse group of trained observers to gather the driving demographics at various times
during the day and night, in locations where traffic stops generally occur. This data was
used in conjunction with census and other measured demographic data and is compared
with department traffic stop data such as Stop Analyses Results and Stop Outcomes Re-
sults.
Findings from the examination of disproportionality in vehicle stops show little or no
evidence of disparity. Given that the term racial profiling is generally applied to contexts
where the police use race as a factor in deciding whether to stop a vehicle, and that racial
profiling routinely shows up as disparity in traffic stops, the results from this portion of the
analyses provide no evidence that the Dubuque Police Department systematically en-
gaged in racial profiling in 2015. Dr. Barnum reiterated that he found no evidence for racial
profiling
Dr. Barnum suggested that the City of Dubuque conduct one additional round of anal-
yses. The proposed work could utilize DPD traffic stop data from 2016 and 2017, with no
updates to observational zone benchmarks needed.
Dr. Barnum responded to questions and comments from the City Council.
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There being no further business, upon motion the City Council adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
/s/Trish L. Gleason, CMC, Assistant City Clerk
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