Police Accountability Groups Say Racial Bias Persists in Latest Traffic Stop Data

Portland police officers continue to pull over and search African Americans and Latinos about twice as often as white Portlanders, according to a new batch of police traffic stop data analyzed by Portland Copwatch and the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform.

The accountability groups obtained the data, covering all traffic stops and searches in 2010, during a meeting with Police Chief Mike Reese and other police bureau officials in mid-May. The police bureau was set to release the data, without the groups’ analysis, during a Community Police Relations Committee meeting tomorrow night.

Portland Copwatch’s Dan Handelman says the groups took a deeper look at the numbers than the police bureau did. He says the bureau looks only at who gets pulled over (which is still not great: blacks, despite making up just 6 percent of Portland, make up 11 percent of stops), not at who gets searched after stops are made.

Says the groups’ analysis:

The police argue that factors like who is driving in what areas at what time of day can skew the numbers. They also say officers can’t always see what race the person is who is driving. (This does not explain why the pedestrian stop data, released since 2006, continually show African Americans stopped at 3-4 times their representation in the population.)”

To offset this criticism, the keys to analyzing the traffic stops data, made available by the Bureau annually since 2004, are to look at the most important part of the incidents after the stops, searches and whether any illegal items are found.

And… the numbers don’t look good:

African Americans in 2010: 14.5% of people stopped were searched
Latinos in 2010: 11.4% of people stopped were searched
Whites in 2010: 6.5% of people stopped were searched

Lieutenant Robert King, the bureau’s top spokesman, is reviewing the analysis and is waiting to comment.

Update 5:25 PM: “In our continuing effort to be transparent the police Bureau again released stop data for the year 2010,” King emailed back. “This is an important discussion for the police bureau to be engaged in with our community. We look forward to the discussion that is scheduled to occur at the next Community Police Relations Committee meeting Wednesday, June 20.”

Worse are stats that look at how much contraband turns up after searches. Blacks and Latinos searched by cops are less likely to have it—suggesting, says Handelman, that cops are more likely using searches against minorities as fishing expeditions.

African Americans in 2010: 26.1% of searches turned up contraband
Latinos in 2010: 23.7% of searches turned up contraband
Whites in 2010: 36.2% of searches turned up contraband

“The police bureau regularly tries to divert attention from that. They say, ‘You can divide numbers however you want,'” Handelman tells me. “Yes, this is how we want to divide the numbers. These are discretionary searches that show this disparity.”

Read the full news release about the analysis below:

In mid-May, 2012, the Portland Police Bureau released the traffic and pedestrian stop data for Portland in the year 2010. Despite the “Plan to Address Racial Profiling” being adopted by City Council in September, 2009, and pledges to improve the “hit rate”— that is, if people are stopped and searched, the searches should turn up contraband at the same rates regardless of the ethnicity of the drivers— the AMA Coalition for Justice and Police Reform and Portland Copwatch have found that the numbers have not improved, and may be getting worse.

While the common indicator, the higher number of traffic stops of African Americans compared to their representation in the population, continues to be irregularly high— 11% of stops vs. 6% of the population— the police argue that due to factors about who is driving in what areas at what time of day can skew the numbers. They also say officers can’t always see what race the person is who is driving. (This does not explain why the pedestrian stop data, released since 2006, continually show African Americans stopped at 3-4 times their representation in the population.)

To offset this criticism, the keys to analyzing the traffic stops data, made available by the Bureau annually since 2004, are to look at the most important part of the incidents after the stops, searches and whether any illegal items are found.

First, dividing the number of discretionary searches (ie, not inventory searches required when towing a car) into the number of total stops for particular ethnic groups.

The percentage of African Americans and Latinos who are searched after being stopped continues to be over twice as high as the percentage of whites who are searched.

African Americans in 2010: 14.5% of people stopped were searched
Latinos in 2010: 11.4% of people stopped were searched
Whites in 2010: 6.5% of people stopped were searched

While the overall percentage of people being searched has gone down since 2004 (from about 12% & 25% to about 7% and 15%), the proportion of Portlanders of color searched remains twice as high as white people searched.

Second, dividing the number of times contraband is found on people in each ethnic group by the number of searches of that group.

The percentage of African Americans and Latinos found to have illegal drugs, weapons, alcohol, or other contraband is about 7/10 as high as the percentage of whites found with the same kinds of items:

African Americans in 2010: 26.1% of searches turned up contraband
Latinos in 2010: 23.7% of searches turned up contraband
Whites in 2010: 36.2% of searches turned up contraband

The highest average “hit rate” for people of color was 83% in 2006, but in 2010 it was just 69%, indicating that police are searching people of color far more often than they are finding anything illegal on them.

In other words, not only is the “hit rate” not improving, it is getting worse.

It is possible that some of the changes are due to the increased number of “unknown” race being reported by officers at the initial stops, which has climbed from 4% in 2004 to 29% in 2010.

The AMA Coalition and Portland Copwatch have been demanding improvements in how police make choices to stop and search people in Portland for many years, most intently since the Racial Profiling Committee was convened by Mayor Potter in 2007-2008. That Committee was dissolved and its charge taken over by the Human Rights Commission’s Community and Police Relations Committee (CPRC). CPRC will be looking at the statistics next Wednesday, June 20th, at their monthly meeting. The AMA Coalition and Portland Copwatch will present their findings to the CPRC at that time.