The Greenwood Justice Center on Surina Way in seen in March 2022. The city is paying an independent consulting firm $40,000 to conduct a study of Greenwood Police Department data to see if there’s any evidence of profiling by officers.
Daily Journal File Photo
The first phases of a study to determine if there’s any evidence of profiling within the Greenwood Police Department are now underway.
Dolan Consulting Group, a North Carolina firm that specializes in public safety officer training and research analysis, will analyze Greenwood Police’s traffic stops, arrests and accident reports data from the past year to determine if there’s any evidence of profiling or bias. The city of Greenwood is paying $40,000 for the comprehensive analysis, which is estimated to last nine months before having results, Police Chief Jim Ison said Tuesday.
The independent study is a response to derogatory and obscene messages made public as part of a lawsuit filed against the city and Ison by a former officer this past summer. In the lawsuit, former officer Sam Bowen is accusing Ison of depriving/conspiring to deprive him of his First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech based on posts made on Facebook before the May municipal primary election, as well as on messages he sent to other officers.
As part of the discovery process, city attorneys compiled instant messages sent and received by Bowen on department computers from July 14, 2021, to July 14 of this year.
Within the document are over 100 exchanges between six officers that contain derogatory language that were sent on department equipment, according to the documents. The messages contained slurs referring to African Americans, Jewish people, the LGBT community and people with intellectual disabilities.
Three of the officers resigned before disciplinary charges could be brought and one officer is not up for termination. Bowen was suspended by the department and was fired by the police merit commission earlier this month. Officer Elijah Allen, who was also suspended, resigned last week before a disciplinary hearing could be held.
Based on the nature of the comments made in the instant messages, Ison said he felt it was necessary to bring in an independent company that specializes in this type of study to have a comprehensive look at the department. Other than the content of the messages, there is no evidence that any officers were actually profiling anyone, he said.
“I just felt that it was necessary to take this step as a show of good faith and due diligence to the people we serve to find out conclusively whether or not this was occurring,” Ison said. “I want to reiterate, I have no reason to believe other than the content of their messages, which, obviously you heard them say that it was nothing more than banter. But it was necessary — in my opinion as the chief of this agency — to make sure.”
Dolan Consulting has done similar studies for multiple agencies around the United States, including the Carmel Police Department, Ison said.
Carmel police officers were accused of stopping minorities at a high rate, so the department brought in Dolan Consulting to do an in-depth analysis of traffic stops between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. A 203-page report released in August 2022 found that that was not the case, saying there was no evidence of a pattern of officers targeting people of color for stops, citations or arrests, according to the Current, a news outlet in Carmel.
That report also looked at the sexes of those arrested, and found evidence female drivers were disproportionately more likely to be stopped during daylight hours in five of Carmel’s six patrol districts. However, after being stopped, females either were shown more leniency or treated equally to male drivers when it came to receiving citations, the Current reported.
“It’s a very in-depth report,” Ison said. “When you look at it, you’ll understand why it takes them so long to complete it.”
Greenwood police officials have already started working with Dolan Consulting, and the agency’s crime analyst is gathering and compiling all of the information they need. Officials plan to turn over the data by the end of this week so the consultants can start their analysis, Ison said.
Once the study is complete, the plan is to share the results not only with the media but also post the results online for the public to seek. GPD’s goal is to be transparent with the citizens they serve, and Ison hopes the results show the department is only stopping and arresting people based on their actions, not their race or ethnicity.
“I don’t believe that’s occurring, but once again, when you have something like what we’ve dealt with, and the comments that were made, we have a due diligence to those we serve to be transparent and to get a conclusive answer,” Ison said. “Just the chief of police saying, ‘No, our officers aren’t doing that,’ quite honestly, that’s not good enough.”
In regards to the instant messages, the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office is reviewing cases involving the five officers to determine if there is any evidence that will impact the office’s ability to move forward with prosecutions.
As a result of two U.S. Supreme Court cases — Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States — prosecutors are required to disclose “materially exculpatory evidence,” which is evidence that tends to exonerate defendants, to the defense. This includes any evidence that could impeach, or cast doubt, on a person expected to be called as a state’s witness, said Lance Hamner, Johnson County prosecutor.
“Pursuant to our discovery obligations under Brady & Giglio — in each case where one of the GPD officers was listed as a state’s witness, we are notifying the defendant/defense counsel that there may be potential Brady/Giglio evidence,” Hamner said via email.
Prosecutors are also asking local courts to conduct reviews of all potential evidence in judges’ chambers to determine what should be turned over to a defendant and how the discovery should take place. This process takes time, and has resulted in some cases being continued so that prosecutors can complete their obligations under Brady and Giglio, he said.
“This office will look at each individual case to determine if the potential evidence will have any impact on our ability to move forward with the prosecution,” Hamner said. “As we are still in the middle of the Brady/Giglio disclosure process, we do not yet know how many cases could be impacted.”
Because the officers involved were patrol officers and not detectives with large caseloads, prosecutors hope there won’t be a huge effect, he said.
For Ison, the hardest thing about the instant messages is how they have affected Greenwood Police’s reputation. Officers have worked hard over the years to build a very good reputation not just in the community but within the region, he said.
The profiling study is a necessary step to reassure the public that despite “a handful of bad actors,” there are 70 other officers in the department who are doing a respectable job, Ison said.
“They go out and do a fantastic job and an honorable job every single day for the citizens of this community,” Ison said. “So [the community] should still be proud of their officers in this department.”
