Cohort 2025
NowKalamazoo
Analyzing the Use and Impacts of Resisting and Obstructing Charges
Kalamazoo County, MI
In Michigan, resisting arrest or obstructing an officer in the performance of their duties is a felony charge. Even in cases where there is no underlying legal reason for an arrest outside of resisting or obstructing, a person can face serious charges, which creates the potential for restricting and obstructing (R&O) charges to be applied unevenly in different situations and for different populations. An investigation in Michigan conducted by the Detroit Free Press found that Black men are almost six times more likely than white men to be charged with R&O. Kalamazoo community members have expressed concern that these felony charges are disproportionately applied to people of color and are often added to minor offenses such as traffic stops, which can lead to disproportionately escalated encounters with law enforcement for people of color. In response, NowKalamazoo, a nonprofit community news service, created a public forum for community members to voice their experiences with R&O charges in the Kalamazoo area.
With Catalyst grant funding, NowKalamazoo will partner with Campaign for Criminal Justice and Transparency and Kalamazoo Defender (a 2024 Catalyst grantee) to host listening sessions with people directly affected by R&O charges. They will also analyze public-record incident logs and arrest records and datasets from local law enforcement and judicial agencies to determine whether systemic bias exists in the application of R&O charges. In addition, they will examine trends in the racial demographics of people charged, the neighborhoods where charges originate, the additional charges commonly paired with R&O, and whether specific officers disproportionately issue these charges. These data will inform a journalistic series that includes articles, data visualizations, a photo essay, a podcast, social media content, a community guide on understanding R&O policies, and live community events. The listening sessions will enable NowKalamazoo to hear from those charged with R&O or affected by these charges, enable it to amplify underrepresented voices, and provide critical context for its findings. This project aims to advance front-end system reform by exposing potential misuse of R&O charges and advocate for data-driven policy changes to ensure fairer policing practices.
NowKalamazoo’s project partner, Kalamazoo Defender, was a Catalyst grantee in 2024. Read about its 2024 project, Expanding Data Collection for a Court Observers Program.
