The report, which has drawn interest from residents at council meetings, alleged that traffic-ticket data in Oakwood shows that black drivers in Oakwood accounted for nearly 22 percent of the stops where a problem with driving or equipment was observed, but they accounted for nearly 37 percent of stops where a license plate check was run without tickets being written for an observable driving or equipment problem.
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Ellis Jacobs, senior attorney with ABLE, told this news organization that he’s encouraged by the fact that Oakwood city officials have reviewed the data and are making a public report tonight at the council meeting.
Vice-Mayor Steve Byington said at an earlier meeting that a decision was made to analyze data and conduct information-gathering meetings with the report’s authors in order to compile a response to the community.
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Mayor Bill Duncan said Law Director Rob Jacques and Director of Public Safety Alan Hill have met with the report’s authors to discuss findings.
“We take all matters seriously related to the delivery of our public safety services and have already completed an initial review of the report,” Duncan said. “Through this review, we identified several areas that merit further discussion.”
City Manager Norbert Klopsch said the city reviewed the report to determine whether it contains any useful or actionable information.
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“(ABLE) told us long ago that they were looking at traffic statistics from several jurisdictions around the area, but never gave us any indication that they were compiling data to complete a summary report solely focused on Oakwood,” Klopsch said. “Our Oakwood Public Safety Department has placed strong emphasis on traffic enforcement for decades. We have a very low crime rate in Oakwood, which is due in no small part to the fact that we regularly dedicate officers to traffic enforcement duties.”
Klopsch said that citizens, businesses and visitors enjoy a safe community.
“We have a highly trained and professional safety department,” he said. “In my nearly 18 years as city manager, I struggle to recall a single instance when a person, of any race, contacted me to express concern about any matter relating to a traffic stop or other traffic enforcement incident.”
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