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Bill To Compile Racial Profiling Data Getting Support At State Capitol

DENVER (CBS4)- A bill at the state Capitol designed to identify and compile racial profiling data is getting a lot of support.

Lawmakers say they know very little beyond that people of color are vastly over-represented in Colorado jails and prisons. What they don't know is where along the criminal justice pipeline the racial disparity begins-- the arrest, charging or sentencing.

"There is not a black man I know of who hasn't heard the words, 'You fit the description,'" said Community Activist Brother Jeff Fard.

The bill would assemble data that already exists from around Colorado so it can be analyzed.

Specifically the bill takes data from computer systems in law enforcement, the judicial system, department of corrections and parole and enables them to talk to each other so the data can be assembled in one report.

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(credit: ThinkStock)

Fard said the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming but the legislation being proposed may change that.

"What the bill allows us to do is take everything from offense or an arrest, charges, convictions, sentencing, parole rates and look at what the racial disparities are at every step along the way and start to figure out what cities are doing better or worse and what parts of the pipeline are doing better or worse," said Sen. Mike Johnston, a Democrat representing Denver.

Johnston said the bill was developed out of community meetings he and Rep. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat representing Aurora, organized last year during the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. and protests in Denver.

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Copter4 flew over the protesters outside the Aurora Justice Center (credit: CBS)

"This was one of the things that came out first from both sides was, we wish we knew where to start by at least knowing where the disparities begin and how they get so significant," said Johnston. "Because you have to know where the arm is broken to know where to cast it and there are different treatments depending on where it is that you find the biggest problem. Is it a matter of training district attorneys differently or supporting law enforcement differently or changing the parole system?"

"I think that these numbers are going to show that all of these stories in one way shape or form, have a connection," said Fard.

Police, prosecutors, public defenders, civil rights advocates and the ministerial alliance all support the legislation, which is unusual.

The report is due to be released in January 2016.

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