The Policy of Enforcement (original) (raw)
Related papers
Policy of Enforcement: Red Light Cameras and Racial Profiling
Transportation Research Board 86th Annual …, 2007
Abstract: The use of red light cameras has focused on traffic safety issues with well established results. In this paper we explore the potential public policy benefits of red light cameras as tools to assess information relating to racial profiling. Specifically, we explore the question of whether or not some of the often conflicting rhetoric about racial profiling and gaps in the literature concerning the prevalence of racial profiling can be cleared up using red light camera observations to measure racial disparities in traffic violations. Using data ...
A Collection of Traffic Stop Information and Biased Enforcement: The Research and Legal Perspective
2000
Many Americans, especially Americans of color, view policing as discriminatory, either by policy and definition or by its day to day application. Thus, comparable to statutes in many other states, the State of Illinois enacted, The Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Study Act which requires that every State and local law enforcement agency record data relative to traffic stops made within their jurisdiction. The Act further charges the Illinois Department of Transportation to provide statistical summaries (benchmarks) so that statistically significant aberrations in the race of those allegedly involved in traffic stops can be compared and analyzed against the total population traveling through an area to determine whether these discriminatory beliefs are factually founded. This paper discusses the research and legal perspectives involved in designing, defining and distinguishing behavior based on these benchmarks.
A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States
Nature Human Behaviour, 2020
We assessed racial disparities in policing in the United States by compiling and analysing a dataset detailing nearly 100 million traffic stops conducted across the country. We found that black drivers were less likely to be stopped after sunset, when a 'veil of darkness' masks one's race, suggesting bias in stop decisions. Furthermore, by examining the rate at which stopped drivers were searched and the likelihood that searches turned up contraband, we found evidence that the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was lower than that for searching white drivers. Finally, we found that legalization of recreational marijuana reduced the number of searches of white, black and Hispanic drivers-but the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was still lower than that for white drivers post-legalization. Our results indicate that police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias and point to the value of policy interventions to mitigate these disparities.
Race-Based Decisions: Traffic Citations and Municipal Court Dispositions
cjcj.org
Numerous studies have demonstrated that race can affect a police officer's decision to stop and ticket a motorist. With a large sample of traffic cases from a major city in the Pacific Northwest, the present study examined the effects of driver race on criminal justice decisions in the street and in the courtroom. Using municipal court data, analyses showed that police officers were more likely to cite African Americans than other races for failing to produce a driver's license or proof of automobile insurance but were less likely to ticket African Americans for committing a moving violation. Police officers were equally as likely to ticket White and African American drivers for equipment violations, which can be used as a pretext for more intrusive police practices. Logistic regression analyses showed that African Americans were more likely than other racial groups to have their traffic tickets dismissed in court for a lack of evidence or probable cause. A race-based pursuit of questionable traffic cases can undermine the perceived legitimacy of the police and degrade public support for police officers, particularly within African American communities.
Criminal Justice Policy Review, 2018
Research has shown that Black and Hispanic drivers are subject to disproportionate stop and post-stop outcomes compared with White drivers. Yet scholars' understanding of how and why such disparities persist remains underdeveloped. To address this shortcoming, this article applies a sequential approach to the analysis of traffic stop data generated by San Diego Police Department officers in 2014 and 2015. Results show that despite being subject to higher rates of discretionary and nondiscretionary searches, Black drivers were less likely to be found with contraband than matched Whites and were more than twice as likely to be subjected to a field interview where no citation is issued or arrest made. Black drivers were also more likely to face any type of search, as well as high-discretion consent searches, that end in neither citation nor arrest. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and a series of recommendations.
Racial Bias in Traffic Stops: The City of Charlotte
UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal
This study analyzes the traffic stops data published by the City of Charlotte in the years 2016-2017 and 2019-2020 to determine if there was any racial bias in the policing. R was used to examine 213,475 stops that involved Black and White drivers. The analysis showed that Black drivers were more likely to be searched, and more likely to be let off with a lighter consequence (e.g., verbal warning). White drivers were more likely to get a citation while Black drivers were more likely to get arrested. When restricted to stops with searches, White drivers were more likely to be given a citation or arrested while Black drivers were more likely to be let off without action. These results are further skewed against Black males between the ages of 18-25. Implications are discussed. The R script and dataset are made available to facilitate reproducible research. Keywords: traffic stops, police bias, statistics, dataset
This dissertation explores a possible use for the repeat phenomenon in examining racial disparities in police motor vehicle stops. Racial profiling, in terms of motor vehicle stops, is one of the more controversial issues in policing today and, subsequently, numerous studies and reports have been issued regarding the distribution of motor vehicle stops across the races. Beyond identifying the existence of racial disparities in motor vehicle stops, explaining why those disparities exist and how they should be addressed are relatively new topics in this growing body of research.
DRIVING WHILE BLACK: BIAS PROCESSES AND RACIAL DISPARITY IN POLICE STOPS
Criminology, 2006
We estimate the degree of racial disparity in police vehicular stops separately for local and state police in North Carolina in the year 2000. We introduce four mechanisms that might produce racial disparities in police stops—racial profiling, race sensitive police deployment, cognitive bias and stereotyping, and prejudice. We then model the relative odds of police vehicle stops as a function of race, driving behavior, and other demographic statuses separately by police organization type, with controls for omitted variable bias at both the driver and spatial level. We find only weak evidence of racial disparity in stops by officers of the state highway patrol but stronger evidence in those made by local police officers.
On the Use of Racial Profiling as a Law Enforcement Tool
2005
The "End Racial Profiling Act of 2001" (ERPA) states that "no law enforcement agent or law enforcement agency shall engage in racial profiling" and mandates states to "collect detailed data on stops, searches, seizures, and arrests." We develop a stylized dynamic model of highway policing to study the long-run consequences of ERPA. In the model, color-neutral police officers receive incentives to arrest criminals, but face a per stop cost which increases when the racial mix of the interdicted differs from the racial composition of the population. Incarceration rates are defined to be racially "fair" if the racial composition of the prison and criminal population is identical. The model predicts that the long-term racial composition of the prison population may not be fair and that ERPA may increase fairness. Ceteris paribus, however, ERPA may lower efficiency (the number of criminals in jail). Finally, we characterize and compare the incentive schemes for crime fighting that a government would optimally set with and without ERPA.