Justice data poorly calibrated to researchers' needs

At a Austin City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting yesterday discussing 911 call data, the Police Department's Chief Data Officer, Jonathan Kringen, reiterated an observation that Grits has made several times over the years: "this data system is built to try to manage an activity. It's not actually built to support researcher analysis." 

That's the biggest problem with most criminal-justice number crunching: Data is collected at points when the bureaucracy either interacts with other government systems or makes decisions about individuals being processed. But those data serve the needs of government tracking, they can't explain the causes of crime or explore dynamics that occurred prior to government intervention. In general, we don't measure the things needed to answer the most critical questions about public safety because the data is collected for different purposes.

As Kringen explained, "there are many things in the data that the way they are set up are functional and they serve the operational need, but they don't actually serve the analytic function that should come thereafter to help figure out what best practices should be."

Amen, brother.

Here are a couple of related academic discussions about the paucity of useful criminal-justice data. The latter article argues that, "Blind trust in the police, fear of a powerful police lobby, and a law enforcement culture of secrecy and insulation results in a serious information failure."

Here's the power point presentation Austin city staff gave to the committee, video of their Zoom call, and here's a data dashboard providing various analyses of APD 911 data. Grits may dig deeper into these dashboards later.

Related: Three quarters of Austin PD 911 responses went to non-crime situations: National experts analyze Austin PD data for clues on how officers spend their time

Credit to Dallas DA on #RoyOliver conviction, TDCJ's phony AC cost estimates, majority of Llano PD under indictment, and other stories

Here are a few odds and ends that merit Grits readers' attention this morning:

Dallas DA deserves credit on Roy Oliver conviction
Much has been written about the murder conviction of former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver for killing 15-year old Jordan Edwards, but here are a couple of things I've not seen emphasized. First, this is the second officer in Dallas County convicted of murder in the last year; Ken Johnson from the Farmers Branch PD received a 10-year sentence in January for killing 16-year old Jose Cruz. Further, the Texas Observer pointed out that a third officer from Dallas PD, Christopher Hess, was indicted in June on aggravated assault as a result of shooting into a fleeing vehicle. All that's a credit to Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson, who personally made the closing arguments in Roy Oliver's case. She may be a Republican in a mostly Democratic county, but none of our big-city Dem DAs have been as aggressive when police shoot unarmed kids. Grits also found it significant that Gov. Abbott, who appointed Johnson, on his personal Twitter account weighed in to declare, "White Texas police officer found guilty of murder for fatally shooting black teen in car. This life should never have been lost." Both the framing of the incident in terms of race and the implied criticism of police in the episode are unusual, to say the least, for this governor, even if the comments seem appropriate and moderate to this writer.

Majority of Llano PD under indictment.
A majority of the Llano Police Department (five of nine), including the police chief, has been indicted, according to published media reports.

Hard to believe TDCJ when they make self-interested claims
When TDCJ was arguing before the federal courts against having to require air conditioning in the Wallace Pack Unit, they claimed it would be unreasonably expensive, estimating it would cost more than $20 million. Later, reported the Texas Tribune, "Before settling the lawsuit, the department conducted its own research and the cost dropped to $11 million." At yesterday's House Corrections Committee hearing, however, TDCJ executive director Bryan Collier said the agency now estimates the cost to install air conditioning at $4 million, a more than 80 percent reduction from their original estimate. (Notably, the agency spent more than $7 million fighting the lawsuit!) The agency is rapidly earning a reputation for promoting false, self-interested information, not just to the press and the public but in this case, to the courts.

Bipartisan support for push to change response to 911 mental-health calls
When the the Austin Justice Coalition last year succeeded in convincing the Austin city council to vote against the union contract with the Austin Police Association, it freed up millions of dollars that can now be used to promote other goals. Check out the group's recommendations to the City of Austin for budget changes that would improve public safety. Important highlights include following Dallas' example to pilot sending an interdisciplinary team led by health professionals to respond to mental-health 911 calls instead of patrol officers. In this, AJC stands in agreement with US Sen. John Cornyn, who has endorsed the Dallas project. AJC also recommended funding independent investigation of police officer misconduct and paying for a one-year study process to determine whether the city should make the Austin PD crime lab independent.

Details on Harris County's state-jail diversion court
At the joint House Corrections-Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearing yesterday, Harris County District Judge Brock Thomas discussed a specialty court they've used to keep from sending as many people for incarceration in state jails. This recent blog post from the National Association of Counties published an interview with Leah Garabedian, Harris County’s Chief Criminal Justice Strategist, discussing those projects, which were funded through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

Unfunded maintenance piling up at Texas prisons
Grits had highlighted underfunding of prisoner health services in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Legislative Appropriations Request, and the Dallas News' Lauren McGaughy detailed unfunded facilities-maintenance costs from the same document. The agency has identified $400 million in maintenance needs, and requested funding for $146 million of that. However, in the current biennium, the Lege appropriated only $40 million for maintenance, and the larger amount was requested in the agency's "exceptional items."

Bail reform goes local
The Fifth Circuit's scaling back of Judge Lee Rosenthal's Harris County bail-reform order may have dampened but definitely has not halted momentum for reform, both locally and statewide. The SA Express News published an extensive editorial supporting reform efforts in Bexar County.

More on blood spatter
After interviewing Pamela Colloff about blood spatter evidence, I was interested to run across this journalistic send-up of blood-spatter forensics published last year in the Springfield News-Leader.

Return of The Wooginator
Congratulations to Amanda Woog, who's moving back to Texas after a stint at the Quattrone Center at Penn Law in order to assume the reins as executive director at the Texas Fair Defense Project. Good luck!

Reduce public-safety costs by diverting non-emergency 911 calls

CityLab has a story about a topic that's been on my mind lately, though I hadn't written anything yet: How to reduce 911 volume by weeding out non-emergency calls. Mostly on Grits we've discussed this in terms of time wasted on false alarms from private burglar alarm companies, which make up 10-12% of 911 calls and almost never result in arrests, even in the less than 1% of cases in which a burglary actually occurred. But there are other means, like diverting non-emergency medical situations from the emergency room, as discussed in the CityLab article. One might also suggest diversion programs for calls related to the mentally ill - right now we use the same tactics and personnel to respond whether the emergency involves a criminal or a patient.

911 is treated by the public as a one-size-fits-all solution to a multi-variate array of life problems. Whittling back its use would decrease demand for patrol services without harming public safety and relieve pressure on local budgets to constantly increase police staffing. Instead, departments could more thoughtfully deploy their officers and be less reactive, spending more money on detectives, crime labs, crime-scene techs, and other necessary functions that make it more likely crimes will be solved.

Brownsville can't keep 911 dispatchers on board

Brownsville PD is having trouble finding dispatchers who'll stay past their training period, reported a local TV station:

"We have a difficult time finding people who can fill those slots and can make a commitment to stay with it," Brownsville Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said.

Starting next year, all dispatchers will have to be licensed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. They must first go through a 20-hour observation period to see if they want to apply for the job. Officials said about 80 percent decide it's not the job for them after that part of the process.

Before they are hired, they must pass a background check and go through a psychological examination. They must attend 64 hours of training. Usually, they work for six to eight months before they start working as a dispatcher alone without a trainer.

One recalls the Legislature raided "dedicated" 911 fees the last couple of sessions to help balance the budget. I don't know whether or not that has anything to do with the shortage in Brownsville.

Lege diverting 'dedicated' criminal justice fees to balance budget

One regrettable trend emerging in the 82nd Texas Legislature is to divert funds from dedicated fees - both in the criminal justice arena and elsewhere - to help certify the budget. State Sen. Rodney Ellis has criticized SB 1582, which raids money designated for juror pay and withholds grants from the Task Force on Indigent Defense to counties. The bill passed out of the Texas Senate yesterday. According to Ellis' press release:

In 2005, Texas ranked dead last in the nation in what it paid jurors, who had not received a pay raise since 1954.  To boost jury participation, the legislature added an additional $4 fee on criminal convictions, and used the fee to provide Texas counties funds to raise jury pay to $40 a day.  In addition, any money raised above the level to fund the jury pay raise was dedicated to the Texas Fair Defense Fund to provide indigent criminal defense.
 
SB 1582 essentially eliminates the juror pay raise and uses that money to certify the budget.  SB 1582 also takes the millions in the Fair Defense Account and uses it to balance the budget.
 
"This is a rip-off," said Ellis.  "It took years to force this state to make these small but vital justice reforms and now, in one fell swoop, we are destroying any progress we've made."
 
Furthermore, in CSHB 1, the Task Force on Indigent Defense is now granted a "sum certain appropriation" rather than "estimated budget authority."  This seemingly minor change significantly reduces the amount of money available for indigent defense grants to Texas counties. It is estimated that $16.6 million will accrue in the Fair Defense Account over the coming biennium to balance the budget rather than be spent on grants to the counties for indigent defense, even though the Account is funded through a series of court-related fees specifically put in place solely to fund indigent defense.
 
"This is yet another example of this legislature taking money from those at the bottom while protecting those at the top," said Ellis.  "We used the exact same fee we are going to raid under this bill--this $4 fee on convictions--to give judges a pay raise that same session.   Are we going to reduce the salaries of our judges this session? No." 
 
"At some point we must stop the smoke and mirrors, stop robbing Peter to pay Paul and address the structural challenges facing this state," Ellis said.

Peggy Fikac at the Houston Chronicle has a story about the bill, quoting state Sen. Kirk Watson criticizing the practice of gather fees under a pretext that they're designated for a specific purpose, only to divert funds after the fact:

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, also questioned the practice of keeping large unspent balances from fees to help balance the budget. If the revenue is not allocated for a fee's intended purpose, it can be used instead to allow more spending elsewhere.

An estimated $3.7 billion in balances is used in this way in the current budget, and Watson said that would rise to an estimated $4 billion or more in the budget proposal.

He called it "a growing bad practice of financial management, which is that we tell the public we're raising a fee or a tax for a specific purpose, but it gets used to balance the budget in other ways."

Another great example of what he's talking about may be found in the plan to cut funding for local 911 emergency lines while keeping the dedicated fee on cell phones and landlines that pay for it. And of course, on a much larger scale, it's why Texas hospitals aren't getting most of the money "dedicated" for trauma centers from the Driver Responsibility surcharge.

The same thing is happening with the Texas Auto Burglary Theft and Prevention Authority, which is funded by a $1 fee on every insurance policy. The Corpus Christi Caller Times reports on plans for "keeping the $1 charge but doing away with the task forces statewide. The state would use the money to help plug a budget shortfall of billions of dollars." As Grits has argued previously, cutting grants for investigating auto thefts and burglaries is especially absurd in combination with a proposed penalty enhancement to the crime of burglary of a vehicle. Clearance rates for vehicle burglaries are already minuscule, so it makes no sense at all to slash investigative resources but INCREASE spending on punishment of the handful of offenders caught. Adding insult to injury, SB 9, which just passed the Senate yesterday, would double that theft prevention fee and divert half the increase to other priorities. 

These fees and surcharges were all created for one reason: The Legislature wanted to pay for this or that program but was unwilling to raise taxes. So they created supposedly "dedicated" fees to generate cash that they pretend are not tax increases. But now that dedicated money is becoming just another General Revenue source, making the fig leaf that fees aren't taxes that much more implausible. At this point, it's become a distinction without a difference.

911 budget reduction good public policy but shady budgeting practice

The Austin Statesman's Suzannah Gonzales has an article ("Small cities oppose cuts to 911 answering services," March 23) on proposals in Central Texas (which are almost certainly being discussed behind the scenes elsewhere in the state as well) to reduce funding for 911 services, putting off infrastructure upgrades and diverting calls from smaller agencies, some of which take as few as two 911 calls per day, to Sheriffs or larger police departments.

Money for 911 systems comes from what was supposed to be a dedicated fee on cell phones and land lines, but some at the Lege want to keep the fee but use the money for other purposes, much like what's happening with grant funds at the Texas Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority. And I doubt this will be the last "dedicated" fund they divert money from before the session is through.

That said, consolidating 911 systems doesn't bother me in the least, and small agencies receiving so few calls don't need to be a 911 conduit when there's coverage through the Sheriff, etc.. This is an instance when budget reductions are forcing a true reduction in waste - eliminating redundant services that add very little public safety value considering the expense. Eventually we'll still have to pay for infrastructure upgrades, but eliminating small, wasteful, redundant systems is a good thing. Texas has 254 counties, around 1,200 municipalities, and more than 2,600 law enforcement agencies. There will still be plenty of coverage.

So to me, countywide or even regional consolidation of 911 answering makes loads of sense, even if raiding "dedicated" funds sets an unhappy precedent that almost guarantees a slippery slope. There are a lot of "dedicated" revenue streams littered throughout the criminal justice system and somebody, somewhere behind the scenes appears to have declared open season on raiding them.