Data Brief: The Systemic racism of School Policing
Looking at five years of school policing data in New York City public schools, this data brief highlights the racial disparities that (particularly) Black and Latinx students face. Despite some changes to policing practices over the years, the brief argues that the racial disparities in policing built into its structures, and that the only way to prevent them is to eliminate school policing.
Key findings:
On average, Black and Latinx youth represented 90.9% of arrests, 89.7% of juvenile reports, and 92.3% of court summonses issued, despite being only 66.2% of the student population.
Black students were disproportionately impacted by school policing across the board. On average, Black students were only 25.7% of the youth population, yet were subject to 54.5% of all policing incidents.
Child in crisis incidents made up nearly 1 in 5 cases in which a young person was handcuffed. Black and Latinx youth were on average 92.4% of youth handcuffed across all categories.
Black boys interacted with police the most of any demographic. Black girls (including the NYPD category of “Black Hispanic” girls) had the most disproportionate rate of arrests as compared with other girls, receiving 73.8% of all arrests of girl students.