Ingham County prosecutor data notes racial disparity in gun charges, case referrals

Update: While Vera Institute of Justice and One Love Global will still be hosting a forum on how prosecutor's offices work, they will not be presenting the racial data Wednesday. The data will be released at a later date.

LANSING — Over the past year, the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office has been working with the Vera Institute of Justice to compile data to learn where racial inequalities are most prevalent in their prosecution. 

Now they're ready to present it. 

The findings aren't pretty, Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon said. But it's important prosecutors look at the data to see what changes they can make to try to decrease inequities in the system. 

"What we don't know yet is what does this really mean," Siemon said.

Starting the process: Race-based data is essential for prosecutors. So why are many just starting to collect it?

Changing policies: Ingham County prosecutor: Office won't issue charges from non-safety-related traffic stops

Some of the preliminary data that has been released showed that in 2019:

• Black people were 1.7 times more likely than white people to be stopped by police
• Once stopped, Black people were three times more likely to be searched despite not being any more likely to have drugs or weapons on them.
• Black people were 14.2 times more likely than white people to be arrested for and charged in a case where the most serious offense was weapons-related (most of these cases involved guns).
• Black people were 5.1 times more likely to have their cases referred to the prosecutor's office by police
• Lower-income people were 1.7 times more likely to have their cases referred to the prosecutor's office by police

Siemon has already started making policy changes. One of her initial steps was changing her office's policy on charging weapons and drug possession cases stemming from non-public-safety-related traffic stops. 

She made that announcement last week, much to the displeasure of many of the police agencies in Ingham County, which said the policy gives criminals a free pass. 

These stops are often pretextual, and some police use them as a chance to see what they can find in people's vehicles, Siemon said. 

Siemon has also changed office policies on when to charge people as habitual offenders and reviewing body camera footage in resisting and obstructing police cases. 

Another area she said she hopes to tackle is felony firearms, which is a charge that can be filed if someone has a gun on them while committing a felony, regardless of whether they use it or if it is legally owned. If convicted, it carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence. 

In 2018 in Ingham County, 80 percent of the 269 people serving a sentence for felony firearms were Black, according to a 2020 Safe and Just Michigan study. In the 10 counties statewide that used this charge most frequently, which includes Ingham, 86 percent of those serving a sentence for felony firearms were Black. 

Charging people with a felony firearms offense was supposed to dissuade people from carrying guns, but "all it did was disproportionately impact Black people," Siemon said. 

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.