The Community Police Review Commission (CPRC) voted Wednesday to extend its Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) ad hoc committee through January 2027, following a lengthy debate over whether additional review requested by the Safety, Wellness and Youth Committee would unnecessarily delay recommendations on police stop data.
The extension gives the ad hoc committee — which consists of Commissioners Eileen Teichert, Jeffery Ward and Robert Lundy — six more months to meet with Riverside Police Department staff to review the department's RIPA data before bringing any revised recommendations back to the commission.
The committee had originally been scheduled to expire this month after spending nine months reviewing recommendations from California's annual RIPA report, which analyzes traffic and pedestrian stop data submitted by law enforcement agencies statewide.
The committee in May approved recommendations saying the city should adopt clearer standards and more detailed analysis to better understand persistent disparities affecting the city's Black residents after RIPA data showed Black residents accounted for a disproportionately high share of police stops over the past three years.
Those recommendations were sent to the Safety, Wellness and Youth Committee, whose chair and vice chair asked the commission to delay forwarding its recommendations to the city council until the ad hoc committee met with the Police Department to better understand the underlying data. They also recommended commissioners complete required police ride-alongs before final recommendations advance.
Several commissioners argued those steps would add little value after years of discussion.
"I was frankly pretty shocked when I saw what happened after almost five years of effort at trying to raise this issue," Teichert said, noting the commission has repeatedly discussed RIPA data with police leadership over the past several years.
"I don't see how any further ride alongs gives any clarity on what hard data tells us," Teichert said.
Lundy noted that two of the three people on the ad hoc committee are former law enforcement.
"I got 32 years of pushing a black and white," he said. "Do I need another ride along? Not really, but I'll do it. But I got 32 years doing the real deal and I've ridden with a lot of guys in 32 years and I see stuff that happens every day. And the gentleman sitting to my right has got 20 years doing it. We've got members on this committee that have been on this committee for a long time and have had other ride alongs. Sometimes I think they're blowing smoke personally. I've said my piece."
Ultimately, commissioners agreed that meeting directly with Police Department staff could help resolve questions about specific elements of the data, including how certain calls-for-service information is collected and reported.
Ward said he was willing to compromise if it helped move the recommendations forward.
"I'm happy to meet with them," he said. "If this moves it along."
Under the approved motion, the committee will meet in person with Riverside Police Department personnel familiar with the department's RIPA reporting, report its findings back to the full commission in public session and determine whether any changes to its recommendations are warranted before resubmitting them for consideration by the Safety, Wellness and Youth Committee.
According to the committee's recommendations, Black residents make up 6.6 percent of Riverside's population but accounted for 14.46 percent of police stops in 2024, 13.85 percent in 2025 and 15.02 percent in 2026. The three-year average was 14.44 percent — more than double the city's Black population share.
"All other races are stopped at a rate at or below their percentage of population," the commission's report stated.
The commission recommended the city pursue four key actions: conduct additional data analysis, establish standards for interpreting disparities, create a formal audit process when data exceeds certain thresholds and set reduction goals if profiling is identified.
As part of data analysis, the commission suggested the city manager's office analyze whether certain categories — including calls for service, "flag down" encounters and stops involving non-residents — might be skewing the data. However, Riverside police officials previously argued those factors could affect the numbers, according to the commission report.
The proposal also recommends creating a framework for determining when disparities should trigger further investigation.
