Disparity in stops by police revealed
Report: Searches far more likely for Black drivers than white ones
A new report with data from every police agency in California finds that officers are far more likely to stop and search Black motorists than white ones. The board that issued the report has issued similar findings every year since the reports began, based on smaller data samples, but its calls for new policies have largely been disregarded.
Out of more than 4.5 million vehicle stops by 535 agencies in 2022, Black drivers were pulled over in 12.5% of the cases, though Black people make up just 5.4% of the state’s population, the state’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, or RIPA, said in its annual report, released Monday.
Latino and Latina drivers were 42.9% of those stopped by police while making up 32.4% of the population; Asian Americans were 5.5% of the stopped drivers and 14.7% of the population; and whites accounted for 32.5% of the drivers pulled over by officers and 35.8% of the population, the report said.
Similar disparities were found for drivers who were ordered out of their vehicles, handcuffed and searched — although officers were less likely to find drugs or other incriminating evidence when
searching nonwhite drivers.
It was the board’s seventh annual report and the first with information from all law enforcement agencies in the state. Previous reports were based on data from the largest police and sheriff’s departments.
“We can now say without a doubt that racial and identity profiling is an issue of concern across the state of California,” the RIPA board’s co-chair, Andrea Guerrero, told the Chronicle. Guerrero is executive director of Alliance San Diego, a nonprofit civil rights organization.
She said the board’s chief recommendation was to ban so-called pretext stops, the police practice of pulling drivers over for minor offenses like broken taillights in order to search for drugs or guns. Those stops, which also disproportionately affect nonwhite drivers, “are not effective at maintaining public safety, are a drain on our resources and cause significant harm to the community,” Guerrero said.
But legislation to prohibit some types of pretext stops, for problems with one headlight or brake light or the lack of a registhey tration tag or front license plate, SB50 by Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), died in the state Assembly last year.
The bill was supported by civil rights advocates but opposed by police groups and most prosecutors. The California District Attorneys Association told an Assembly committee that the stops are “a very effective investigative tool that is often used by law enforcement to gather information needed in an ongoing criminal investigation, apprehend a suspect who is wanted for having committed an unrelated criminal violation, or to investigate an unrelated offense.”
Guerrero said the RIPA board, which supported SB50, would prefer a broader bill prohibiting all pretext stops. Los Angeles police and a city commission banned some types of pretext stops in March 2022 and later reported that officers who stopped cars under the new policy were more likely to find contraband. San Francisco’s Police Commission has recommended similar restrictions for the city’s officers.
One bill that won approval from lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom and took effect this week requires police to tell motorists the actual reason are being pulled over, unless the officer “reasonably believes that withholding the reason for the stop is necessary to protect life or property from imminent threat.” Before passage of AB2773 by Assembly Member Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, officers could give drivers a false explanation, or none at all.
Among the RIPA board’s 17 members, some, including Guerrero, were appointed by legislative leaders and others by Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta. The board also includes representatives of law enforcement agencies and the state Public Defenders Association.
A police advocacy group, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, criticized the report’s racial data, as it has in previous years. Instead of comparing the driver’s race with the racial makeup of the surrounding community, RIPA should have considered what the officer perceived as the driver’s race before stopping the car, and the racial composition of drivers in the area rather than the overall population, the group said. PORAC also opposed the law that created the racial profiling reporting requirements.
Such reports offer “little insight for policing professionals or policymakers on how or why police officers make enforcement decisions,” said Brian Withrow, a professor of criminal justice at Texas State University and a former state trooper who examined the report for PORAC.
On another issue, the RIPA board recommended repeal of a state law that allows local school districts to establish their own police departments.
Nineteen districts have created police departments, mostly in Southern California and none in the Bay Area, the report said. But Guerrero said officers from local departments are patrolling campuses in many parts of California.
“There are more law enforcement officers on school grounds than there are nurses and counselors,” she said, citing the board’s findings. “Police are engaged in school discipline.
“If there is … criminal activity or a threat, there is a role for police. But police should have no role in enforcing school policy. … Students disproportionately affected are young Black and brown students … and it has a negative impact on learning.”