Twisting statistics against police

I have worked with law-enforcement people for 20 years. They are not perfect, but they endeavor to do the best they can. But there was an attempt in the legislature to make you believe that our wonderful police officers are racist. The premise of that lie, Senate Bill 20 aimed at documenting minority contacts with juvenile justice. The bill — supported by Kentucky Youth Advocates, the Department of Public Advocacy, the American Civil Liberties Union and others died in committee — rested upon statistics.

This is how it works: Minority communities often have a higher rate of crime because of poverty. Police try to address that issue and cries from minority leaders for protection in their neighborhoods by adding police patrols in those areas.

This creates more minority contact with police. But when more contact occurs, it is assumed that it must be because police are racist. Thus, we need to institute disparate minority contact training to fix our police forces.

The bill’s supporters were trying to deceive us.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Twisting statistics against police."