The Racial Divide at Micro Places: A Pre/Post Analysis of the Effects of the Newark Consent Decree on Field Inquiries (2015–2017)

DOI10.1177/00224278211030964
Published date01 March 2022
Date01 March 2022
Subject MatterArticles
Original Research Article
The Racial Divide at
Micro Places: A Pre/
Post Analysis of the
Effects of the Newark
Consent Decree on
Field Inquiries
(2015–2017)
Vijay F. Chillar
1
Abstract
Objectives: An initial investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found
that the Newark Police Department (NPD) had engaged in a “pattern or
practice” of constitutional violations with regard to stop and arrest prac-
tices, prompting the city to enter a consent decree. Methods: This study
draws on official event-level data on FIs recorded by NPD officers
(N ¼50,322) and uses random effects panel regression models to examine
how socioeconomic character istics interact with the implem entation of
the consent decree at micro places in the short term. Results: Spatial anal-
yses indicate a concentration of FI encounters. The implementation of
the consent decree coincided with improvements in the quality of data
collected by officers conducting FIs of citizens. It was also associated with
1
Center for Law and Justice, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice, Newark, NJ, USA
Corresponding Author:
Vijay F. Chillar, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice, Center for Law and Justice,
123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
Email: vijay.chillar@rutgers.edu
Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency
ªThe Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00224278211030964
journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc
2022, Vol. 59(2) 240–276
decreased rates of report ed FIs for the city’s Black an d Latino citizens
relative to their share of the local population, and patterns of FI encounters.
Conclusions: Newark’s consent decree improved the quality of data collec-
tion. However, the spatial concentration of reported FIs and subsequent
arrest of Black and Latino individuals have not experienced the same effect
as they presumably require a culture change that is likely to necessitate a
longer time frame to manifest.
Keywords
consent decree, police accountability, spatial analysis, field inquiries
During the summer of 2014, the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Missouri revitalized public debate regarding police encounters,
particularly with Black men (Sherman, 2018). Frustrations about the dis-
proportionality of fatal encounters between police and Black citizens
(Edwards, Esposito, and Lee 2019) have since been fueled by the deaths
of Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and Daniel Prude at the hands of police.
The continued clamor for police reform reached a fever pitch in the summer
of 2020, with the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer,
resulting in country wide protests. A recent Burea u of Justice Statistics
(Harrell and Davis 2020) report estimated 61.5 million residents aged 16
or older experienced at least one interaction with the police in 2018. While
there was not a statistically significant difference in the percentage of
police-initiated contacts for Whites (12 perc ent) as compared to Blacks
(11 percent), Blacks and Latinos experienced threats or use of force at a
higher percentage than Whites. This comports with previous research with
has found racial disparities in post-stop outcomes (Rengifo and Pater 2017;
Rengifo and Slocum 2020), use of force (Cesario, Johnson, and Terrill
2019), and searches (Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker 2012). Following con-
tinued media coverage of disproportionate, and sometimes fatal encounters
between police and citizens, a renewed call, or “second great awakening”
(Sherman 2018) for accountability of officers by citizens has emerged. One
way in which the federal government has sought to address police miscon-
duct and establish a culture of accountability is through investigations led
by the Department of Justice (DOJ), known as a consent decree (Alpert,
McLean, and Wolfe 2017). The term has been defined by the DOJ as “a
negotiated agreement that is entered as a court order and is enforceable
through a motion for contempt.”
241
Chillar
In this article, I examine one key practice between the police and the
public—stops, or field inquiries
1
—in the specific context of short-term
impacts of an external accountability mechanism: consent decree
of Newark Police Division (NPD).
2
I provide insight into the exte nt to
which this key practice varies by spatial distribution and change over time
in volume, location, characteristics of persons involved, and post stop out-
come prior to and following consent decree implementation. Additionally, I
study variation on three indicators that reflect core components of the
consent decree: completeness of recorded data, recorded stops, and arrests
following a stop. The outcomes of interest were selected for their common-
ality across completed and ongoing consent decrees (D’Souza, Weitzer, and
Brunson 2019). The effect of consent decree implementation on quality of
recorded data by officers has not been analyzed by previous research.
However, given the focus on short-term outcomes, I believe this represents
the lowest threshold of expected change. While each consent decree has its
own stipulations and there is no universal measure of consent decree com-
pliance, several studies (Chanin 2014, 2015; Davis, Henderson, and Ortiz
2005; Stone, Foglesong, and Cole 2009) have evaluated select goals of the
broader agreement after the consent decree has ended and federal oversight
is removed. The study seeks to answer three research questions: 1) What is
the nature of recorded stops by the NPD in terms of volume, type, location,
persons involved, and outcome?; 2 ) Did patterns of recorded stops an d
subsequent arrests change after the consent decree?; and 3) To what extent
are patterns in recorded stops related to neighborhood characteristics and
local crime levels?
This work contributes to the growing, yet limited, literature related to
consent decrees in several ways. First, models and data allow me to con-
tribute to debates on the impacts of consent decree agreements on policing
activities (Chanin 2014; Stone et al. 2009). By evaluating an ongoing
consent decree, this study is important for policy as it may allow police
administrators to revise procedures and practices throug hout the federal
oversight period to ensure desired effects of the consent decree are realized,
rather than waiting until the end of the agreement to find out what works
and what does not. Additionally, it will allow for a city to identify positive
short-term impacts to signal progress to its residents, through monitoring
reports that are routinely conducted (e.g., quarterly) and made public. The
length of time a department remains under federal consent decree can range
from a typical five-year period (Chanin 2015) as was the case with Cincin-
nati (2002–2007), to 13 years, in the case of Chicago (2003–2016), with
many departments failing to meet the requirements for settlement by the
242 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 59(2)

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