The watchdog group Shasta Equal Justice Coalition released a report analyzing police engagements from 2022 to 2023 by race, gender and sexual orientation.
The “2024 State of Equity Report: Shasta County” found local police stopped those they perceived as Black at a disproportionately high rate — 529 stops per 1,000 individuals. That’s compared to 161 for white residents.
Police also performed one or more reportable actions during stops, such as field sobriety tests or being removed from their vehicle, at the highest rate — 65.7% of stops — for those they classified as American Indians.
Redding Police Department data shows Black individuals made up 5.9% of arrests during those two years, while being less than 2% percent of the county’s population. Meanwhile, American Indians accounted for between 3% and 4% of arrests, while also making up less than 2% of the total population.
More than half of arrests for Black and American Indian residents were due to failure to appear in court and drug possession.
“There was a clear pattern of over-representation of Native Americans and African Americans in Shasta County arrest statistics,” said Larry Olmstead with Shasta Equal Justice Coalition.
Redding Police Chief Brian Barner said the report is beneficial and worked with the group on collecting data.
“Redding PD is a very proactive police department and we encourage our officers to make traffic [and] pedestrian stops,” Barner said in a statement. He said the department’s body camera program, which began in 2023, has been a beneficial tool for transparency.
The report notes police discovered evidence or contraband at the lowest rate — only 27% of searches — for Black individuals. “We're seeing a lot of people being pulled over for things that don't really lead to true criminal prosecution of the kinds of crimes we might be more worried about,” Olmstead said.
The report found 20 instances of hate crimes in Shasta County during 2022 and 2023. The largest proportion of victims were Black individuals at 40%, followed by white individuals at 30%.
Researchers also parsed data on stops and arrests by perceived gender and sexual orientation.
California Highway Patrol conducted more field sobriety tests of females, about 25% compared to males. And local officers took actions 60% of the time toward those thought to be LGBT compared with 47% for perceived non-LGBT individuals.
Olmstead made clear the report does not seek to blame anyone, and his organization is not anti-police.
“This report doesn't seek to draw conclusions about why these statistics exist,” he said. “What we do hope is that our law enforcement agencies review this report and similar statistics, that our community and our community leaders look at these things and ask questions.”
The report recommends that police departments continue collecting demographic data and make that information more available. Olmstead also said he’d like a volunteer civil rights advocate position to return to the Redding Police Department. Authors of the report encourage local advocates to support projects, such as brake light repair events and expungement clinics.
