Academic

A Lesson In (In)credibility: LAPD Discovers It's Perfect

By Dan Filler

The Los Angeles Police Department announced, yesterday, that after looking into over 300 complaints of racial profiling, every single claim had no merit.  The news is even better: according to the LA Times story, this is the sixth straight year that the department has concluded that every single profiling claim was groundless.  Here's the problem: nobody can take these results seriously.

First off, there's the general problem that American human beings are not race blind.  Then there's the more specific problem that police officers are not race blind - perhaps for rational (albeit legally and morally unacceptable) reasons (e.g., an officer's life experience may teach him that specific racial heuristics produce better arrest results.)  And finally there's the most specific problem of all: the LAPD is a department with historical issues in the area of race.

I'm not here to do battle with the department's conclusions.  I don't believe them, and I suspect that I'm not alone in my doubts.  But there is another point worth focusing on.  The credibility of an investigation, a lawyer, a sales person, all depend on that person's awareness that the world is not perfect.  This certainly resonates in the context of auto sales.   Concede that the Camry is a good car, with a great track record, and I'm much more likely to believe you when you tell me that the Altima has its own special merits.

For trial lawyers, this is crucial wisdom.  For example, witnesses with perfect testimony begin to look unbelievable - everyone has some blemishes.  It may even benefit the party that brings a witness to intentionally surface a few problems; it makes the testimony look real.   Similarly, a lawyer's closing arguments may want to embrace and concede evidentiary flaws in the case.   Jurors don't like being oversold any more than customers at the Ford dealer.  The fact that the world is a messy place doesn't mean that one side isn't right. 

The same holds true in politics.  One thing we learned over and over again is that American's embraced Bill Clinton despite, and perhaps even because of, his flaws.

If the LAPD had found several legitmate cases of profiling, we might have believed that they'd at least tried to investigate fully.  As it is, the discovery of perfection only serves to undermine the search process itself. 

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).