Pasadena Police Failed to Report Half of Required Racial Profiling Data in 2024

During a year-end review at Thursday’s Community Police Oversight Commission meeting, Pasadena Police Chief Eugene Harris revealed his department had documented only about half of the racial profiling data for 2024 traffic stops as required by state law.

The Department recorded demographic data for just 6,605 traffic stops under California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), but actually conducted 12,658 stops.

This marked a sharp decline in reporting; in 2023, the Department properly documented 14,692 traffic stops.

“I have to take the hit because it is my responsibility to make sure that our folks are putting this information in the system,” Harris told Commissioners.

The Chief identified a problematic two-week policy window for data entry.

“By the time they come back to work they’re on vacation or they get injured or things happen and then the information never gets entered,” Harris explained.

Commanders encountered significant delays in identifying reporting gaps.

“Our system doesn’t track it in real time. So as Commanders and folks that need to be looking at this, we’re getting it a month later, two months later, maybe three months later,” Harris said.

Of the stops that were documented, Hispanic individuals accounted for 2,266 stops, White individuals for 2,112, Asian individuals for 954, and Black/African American individuals for 943.

Harris noted the department maintains “a very good partnership with Department of Justice,” which he said understands implementation challenges, but he pledged reform: “I guarantee you in 2025 we will not have this problem.”

The RIPA state law, enacted in 2015, requires officers to record perceived race, gender, age and other demographic details during all stops to help identify potential racial profiling patterns.