Race Gap Cited in Traffic Searches
(AP) Black drivers are more likely to be searched and arrested, and police are more likely to use or threaten force against them per a just released report.
As a former prosecutor and judge for over 15 years, I can say without hesitation that race significantly impacts how officers interact with traffic offenders.
Released by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, the report covered police contacts with the public during 2005. The numbers appear consistent with those found in a similar study of police-public contacts in 2002, a co-author of the report indicated.
Black, Hispanic and white motorists were equally likely to be pulled over by police -- between 8 percent and 9 percent of each group.
The racial disparities, however, immediately reared their ugly head after that point:
Blacks (9.5 percent) were much more likely to be searched than whites (3.6 percent). African Americans (4.5 percent) were also more than twice as likely as whites to be arrested.
Among all police-public contacts, force was used 1.6 percent of the time. But officers were more likely to use force against or to threaten to use force against African Americans (4.4 percent) than against whites (1.2 percent).
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