NEW HAVEN–Yesterday, the Center for Policing Equity proudly made public its Justice Navigator Assessment for the Elgin Police Department.
In 2018 CPE signed an MOU with the Elgin PD in response to its request that we asses its data. In 2020, the same year the public lynching of George Floyd galvanized the world, we completed our first round of data collection. In 2021, we delivered our completed JNA to the Elgin PD. More information on the timeline is available in our presentation to the Elgin City Council.
Two weeks ago, CPE learned that after receiving our initial findings, Elgin PD decided to seek a second opinion this past April. While we welcome scientific transparency, we were not provided an opportunity to collaborate, exchange methodologies, and help the public receive clarification on the differences between those two reports—this, several months after they had received our report.
Our concern is that the Elgin PD may be shopping for a report that justifies maintaining the status quo. Although we sincerely hope otherwise, that would be a disservice to the original goal of the project and the people of Elgin.
For the time being, our work with Elgin PD has concluded. We hope that the city council, the people of Elgin, and the police department will take the findings of disparity seriously and take swift action to do all that is within their power to correct it.
Note: Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff’s presentation of the JNA given to the Elgin City Council on October 26, 2022, can be found at https://youtu.be/1ytlOPjc1ws.