Embed from Getty Images

Denver police plan to begin collecting racial data about the people officers stop by the end of the year, after years of saying such an effort would be too difficult and expensive to implement.

Chief Robert White said the policy reversal is an effort to ensure accountability.

“Officers need to know and citizens need to know how everyone’s actions are going to be held accountable,” White said last week in an interview with The Denver Post. “Without it, we can’t prove anything one way or the other. That does not benefit the transparency or the credibility of the department.”

White’s decision comes after the department spent years resisting calls from the city’s minority communities to collect the data. It would be the first time in 14 years the department has tried to study racial bias within its officer ranks.