Title
Resolution to Improve CLEMIS Data Management and Usage Policy in Order to Ensure Law Enforcement Transparency
Staff
Reviewed by: Jen Janetsky, Assistant City Attorney
Body
Whereas, The Ann Arbor City Council believes that full transparency between the Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) and the public is necessary to build and foster trust in law enforcement in the City of Ann Arbor;
Whereas, The AAPD currently uses Court Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) to capture and manage their data and generate reports on law enforcement actions in the City of Ann Arbor;
Whereas, When the AAPD initiates a traffic stop, the current version of CLEMIS has pull-down menus allowing officers to select only one reason for contact (speed, belt, alcohol/drugs, assist, traffic violation, crime, equipment violation, weighmaster or other) and only one outcome (arrest, citation, verbal warning or assist) arising from each police interaction, despite the fact that many police interactions involve multiple reasons for contact and multiple outcomes;
Whereas, The inability to capture data reflecting every reason for contact and every outcome of each police interaction makes full transparency between law enforcement and the public impossible to achieve;
Whereas, AAPD officers are trained to select the most serious reason for contact and the most serious outcome when using CLEMIS, but no policy currently exists requiring them to do so, leading to the possibility that data could be improperly recorded, either intentionally or inadvertently, thereby creating an inaccurate picture of policing in the City of Ann Arbor; and
Whereas, The proper recording and representation of all reasons for contact and all outcomes is essential for obtaining more accurate, comprehensive, and insightful data, improving the efficacy of policy-making, ensuring data-driven law enforcement strategies, and reinforcing public trust and transparency in law enforcement;
RESOLVED, That the Ann Arbor City Council directs the City Administrator to liaise with CLEMIS to ascertain whether their system can be modified to allow for the selection of multiple reasons for contact and multiple outcomes by AAPD officers, advocate for these necessary changes, and make reasonable efforts to ensure that these changes are promptly made in the event they are possible; and
RESOLVED, That the City Council directs the AAPD to create a policy mandating officers to select the most serious reason for contact and the most serious outcome of each police interaction when entering data into the CLEMIS system in its current form, and that all accurate reasons for contact and all accurate outcomes be selected once CLEMIS is modified to allow more than one reason for contact and outcome to be selected.
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Harrison, Eyer, Cornell, Ghazi Edwin, Briggs, Disch, Akmon, Radina and Watson