Manatee NAACP questions Bradenton police records on traffic citations

Rodney Jones, president of the Manatee County chapter of the NAACP, says the Bradenton Police Department’s records on traffic citations since 2006 don’t add up, and he wants to know why.

At an NAACP press conference Sunday just outside the Bradenton Police Department, Jones said he made public records requests to the Bradenton, Palmetto and Sarasota police departments and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in order to evaluate if there are a disproportionate number of minorities who are stopped.

Jones requested that BPD supply information on every traffic stop for the past 30 years that resulted in a search, citation and arrest and what the suspect’s and officer’s race, age and gender were in each case. He also asked for the same information on every BPD shooting.

The Bradenton Police Department informed Jones that it could only provide the shootings from 1988 to the present and traffic citations leading to arrests by age, race and gender going back 10 years, but that it didn’t record searches.

The fact that BPD didn’t record searches as part of its usual routine upset Jones, who said it seemed like sloppy record keeping. But not as much, he said, as the fact that BPD’s total uniform traffic citation numbers didn’t add up.

“I did talk to Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan this morning and she says they now have the numbers,” Jones said Sunday. “But it looks like a deliberate attempt to skew the data.”

Bevan was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

The report stated that the total 10-year citation figure was 57,103, but the breakdown said 44,061 were white, 11,832 were black, 9,116 were Hispanic, 46 were Indian, 273 were Asian and 37 were unknown, leaving a total of 65,365, more than 8,000 above the cited total figure.

Jones said Sunday he is left wondering if the difference was actually added to the white total to make it look less disproportionate.

Bradenton Police Department Capt. John Affolter on Sunday said there was no intent to deceive anyone.

“All the data we provided to the NAACP on individual offenders is accurate,” Affolter said. “The only thing inaccurate is the total of white offenders. When our computer totaled them, it added in Hispanics. We are investigating why.”

Standing behind Jones at the press conference on Sunday were about a dozen people, including Manatee pastors and members of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, Latin Caucus of Manatee County, Black Lives Matter, Manatee Democratic Party and Suncoast Answer.

The group also included two Bradenton mayoral candidates — Warren Merriman, who was fired from the BPD after he was charged with theft, and Eleuterio “Junior” Salazar, the incoming president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce.

Also behind Jones were Merriman’s wife, Devon Carr Davis, who is running for the Ward 1 seat on the Bradenton City Council against incumbent Gene Gallo, and Tamara K. Goudy, a local business owner.

Just prior to the press conference, Merriman said that if the Bradenton Police Department was still accredited, “we would not be here today.”

“When the Bradenton Police Department was accredited they had a mandatory standard that covered bias-based profiling,” Merriman said. “When it lost accreditation it lost accountability.”

Merriman also pointed out that the numbers on the report didn’t match up.

“Why is Chief Bevan not here today?” Merriman asked. “Could it be that she lives in North Tampa and she doesn’t live in our community? Maybe? But I think she should have been here. She knew about it and she should have been here to answer the questions.”

Merriman said he is willing to meet with Bevan to go over the numbers.

“You have to include everyone in this community,” Merriman said. “Where’s our police commissioner? Our police commissioner has never reached out, as mayor, to the NAACP. I’m a member of the NAACP. I think we should be inclusive of everyone in our city.”

Merriman said he was not at the press conference for political gain.

“It is absolutely not political,” Merriman said. “I am here to support Rodney Jones and the NAACP. It happens that I am a mayor candidate who already has a relationship with the NAACP, and we won’t have the same tragedies that occurred in Ferguson and Baltimore.”

Merriman said he had nothing to do with Jones’ public records request.

“No,” Merriman said. “Rodney did this on his own. He believes very much in the NAACP chapter here. He took it upon himself.”

Mayoral candidate Salazar said the numbers were “well hidden” and not disclosed for a reason.

“I think the reason behind the non-disclosure was that people go uneducated and continue to fall behind the scenes and continue electing those in power who are part of the good old boy system,” Salazar said. “When we hold back our people and don’t educate them, the process continues to elect these candidates.”

Whatever the reason behind the numbers not adding up, they have put a stain on the report for Jones.

“Why would you send a document filled with inaccuracies to the NAACP when you know that they are trying to establish that this community has disproportionate numbers?” Jones said. “That shows a complete lack of judgment.

“We asked for uniform traffic citations, the number of people ticketed in the city, just to see if those numbers are disproportionate,” Jones said. “Those numbers turned out to be disproportionate. Roughly 21 percent of the people ticketed in the city of Bradenton are blacks, which roughly equals a quarter of those ticketed.”

Jones at least had a report in his hand and was only charged $60 for the research and printing by BPD, he said.

The same public records request to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office resulted in a bill of $560 and an inability to produce half the request, said Jones, who said he will soon pick up the abridged report and pay the tab.

As for the city of Palmetto Police Department, Jones said an officer would have to manually print out 7,000 pages of documentation and go through all those by hand.

As for officer-involved shootings, the Manatee NAACP learned that, since 1988, Bradenton officers have pulled out their service weapons and fired 14 times. Seven of the 14 shootings involved black people. Of those killed, 70 percent were black, Jones said.

One BPD officer who shot a firearm was black and all others were white, Jones said.

“Where this is alarming is that blacks in the city of Bradenton make up 16 percent of the population,” Jones said. “The national average of people who are shot shows blacks are 38 percent and right here in Bradenton we are at 50 percent.”

That part of the report also convinces Jones that the BPD needs more diversity, he said.

“We often say we have beautiful beaches here in the city of Bradenton, but this is very much the deep South,” Jones said. “Those that live here and were born and raised here know that to be true.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Manatee NAACP questions Bradenton police records on traffic citations."