Charleston Police release report showing improvements since 2019 racial bias audit

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – An External Review and Assessment report (ERA) has been released by the Charleston Police Department (CPD) highlighting the department’s response to 2019 racial bias audit recommendations.

The report states that CPD “has made a good-faith effort to implement the recommendations” and “can clearly document implementing more than three quarters or 80.59 percent of the recommendations.”

The ERA also shows that CPD has 16.41 percent of the recommendations in the process of being carried out. In addition, the report also gave suggestions for opportunities of future growth.

Since the audit was released, an online community survey was posted with the Citizen’s Police Advisory Council, asking citizens how they feel about CPD’s performance and public interaction.

The results show that community members are satisfied with CPD overall and gave suggestions for further improvement.

The ERA report was created by third-party examiners, including Dr. Geoffrey Alpert, Dr. Robert Kahle, and Dr. Kyle McLean.

“On behalf of the Charleston Police Department, I’d like to thank each of the outside assessors for their diligent work on this important project. While the ERA report clearly demonstrates the remarkable progress made so far, we remain committed to continuing to implement the audit’s recommendations and identify additional opportunities for growth and improvement,” CPD Chief Chito Walker said.

Th full report can be read here.