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Indybay Feature

Statistical Evidence of Park Rangers & SCPD Targeting Homeless Folks for Sleeping in Parks

by Raven Davis
Data and statistics on Parks & Recreation and SCPD citations from 2013 and 2014
statistics_on_parks___rec_stay_away_orders.pdf_600_.jpg
The first PDF contains statistics on Parks & Recreation citations issued between January 2013 and mid-October 2014. Please note that I've provided two counts of orders to vacate. The first count includes the time period immediately before the order to vacate ordinance was enacted, so it divides the citations into the categories of "Order to vacate not applicable", "Yes (order to vacate issued), "No (order to vacate not issued)," and "Error" (data missing or not properly recorded). The second count does not include the earlier time period, thus it reflects a more accurate account of how many orders to vacate were or were not issued by Santa Cruz Park Rangers over the last year and a half. At the bottom of this document, you will also find a condensed version of data provided by the SCPD.

In regards to statistical significance and the chi-test for independence:
A result listed as statistically significant means that the odds of someone receiving a stay away (in general or for a particular charge) is related to their housing status (i.e. not independent of their housing status). This was determined through a statistical formula that compared the observed number of stay-aways for each group (homeless vs housed) with the expected number of stay-aways for each group and seeing if there was a difference that was so big it couldn't be explained by random chance.

The second PDF is a "cleaned-up" version of the data I collected. You'll notice that information such as names, dates, and time of day are not included in this document. It was not possible to collect all of that information for every single citation, so those details have been removed so as not to clutter the spreadsheet. I should also clarify that because there were fewer citations issued in 2013 than 2014, it was possible to separate out citations that were issued before July 2013 and citations that were issued July 2013 or later, without specifying the exact day or time the citations were issued. Hence, I am still able to provide information on how many citations were not eligible for orders to vacate.

§All the citations
by Raven Davis
santa_cruz_parks___rec_citations_2013-2014.pdf_600_.jpg
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Razer Ray
Fri, Feb 6, 2015 9:49AM
mr me
Thu, Feb 5, 2015 3:58PM
Raven Davis
Thu, Feb 5, 2015 2:51PM
Razer Ray
Thu, Feb 5, 2015 1:16PM
G
Thu, Feb 5, 2015 11:18AM
Mike Novack
Thu, Feb 5, 2015 7:38AM
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