New data shows Portland police are arresting Black students at double the rate than their white peers. That information reflects the concerns of student activists who have been recently working to keep Portland Public Schools (PPS) from hiring more Portland cops to patrol school campuses.
According to data from the City Budget Office (CBO), PPB officers arrested 28 individuals under 21 years old on campuses during school hours during the 2017-18 fiscal year. Sixteen of those students were Black, eight were white, three were Hispanic or Latino and one was Asian.
Those arrest rates contrast starkly with PPS demographics; while more than half of arrested students were Black, only about 9 percent of the general student population is Black, according to PPS data. It does, however, reflect national data, which shows Black students are more likely to be arrested at school than any other race.
The majority of these arrests were made by Student Resource Officers (SROs), which are PPB officers specifically assigned to PPS campuses. The police bureau currently employees 12 SROs—nine of which are assigned to PPS campuses.
This new data could have some bearing on how—and if—PPB’s SRO program is funded in the future.
In October of last year, the PPS board of directors approved an agreement to start paying the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) about $1 million a year for nine SROs. SROs have had a presence in Portland schools since the early 2000s, but the district had never reimbursed PPB for their services before. The move drew swift criticism and action from a group of student activists, prompting the PPS board to suspend the original contract. The two agencies are currently negotiating a new deal.
Many of those student activists worried that they couldn’t trust police officers to not unfairly target people of color.
“As a person of color, I’ve never felt safe in the presence of police officers,” Grant High School senior Micah Mizushima told the Mercury in January. “I’ve always felt that simply by being around a police officer was threatening to me because I see police officers as unpredictable and it scares me.”
The Portland City Council is in early stages of determining the budget for the next fiscal year, and could decide to eliminate PPB’s SRO program. CBO noted that redirecting SROs to other positions could help alleviate “constrained resources and limited patrol staffing levels” in the bureau.
I think if you factor in the much smaller population of black students at PPS you will find that the arrest “rate” is actually nearly 14 times greater for black students than white students. Reporting the 2x number really underestimates how bad this problem apparently is.
It constantly amazes me that the myth that black people commit more crimes than whites is believed by anyone. Apparently no amount of objective statistical data matters and will never convince racists otherwise.
The police target people every single day at astronomical rates for simply existing.
White people really need to get their heads wrapped around that fact and be outrages and insist it stops, you know why? Because it will NEVER STOP UNTIL WHITE PEOPLE PUT A STOP TO IT.
*The police target black (and brown) people every single day at astronomical rates for simply existing.
This article is meaningless without more context. The real question that should be explored is whether there is a trend of white students (at these very schools) committing the same crimes, but getting away with it. Commenters here will say “of course there is”, but without any evidence from these schools (even just anonymous interviews with teachers and students), the stats and article are pretty worthless.
A real journalist would have broken down all the arrests to determine which ones were actually crimes that warranted an arrest. If all 11 back students had actually committed crimes which got them arrested, what would whacked-out liberals say then?
I’m not saying police can’t be racist, I’m just saying it’d be nice to have ALL the facts before whining and crying about these legal adults that are somehow still in high school getting arrested.
And by the way, PPS has over 50,000 students and 11 black students getting arrested is somehow racist? 11 students out of over 50,000?
It’s not surprising that the racial bias we see every day from police on the streets is carried over into the schools when you put police there as well.
What is surprising is that so many people still refuse to believe this bias exists and continue to believe that black people are getting what they deserve.
It’s sad to read the comments of some of my fellow citizens and see how blindly they adhere to their racist beliefs despite all the data that proves otherwise.
Sorry, but as white people we don’t have the right to lie to black people who already know what is true.
@ Christina Rae – are you suggesting that they don’t? Take a look at the stats – blacks commit murder at a rate 4x the general population.
FYI I don’t dispute that often minorities are unfairly targeted. Fully acknowledge this is a problem. But if doesn’t help matters to pretend that all races offend at the exact same rates – for many crimes there are serious discrepancies.