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Main Page RI Police Continue To Stop More Minority Drivers Than Caucasians
(Click here to view the original thread on the MassCops Message Board)

Posted by: kwflatbed

PROVIDENCE -- A new state racial-profiling study said police in Rhode Island continue to stop and search non-caucasians drivers disproportionately more often than caucasians drivers, though progress has been made.

Researchers from Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice used traffic stops data to compare the racial makeup of drivers stopped with the estimated racial makeup of the driving population.

They found that police in all but two communities, Bristol and Middletown, disproportionately stopped non-caucasians drivers.

But the study found modest improvements from a prior study in reducing the differences on how minority drivers are treated, primarily in police search rates.

Posted by: SOT

I never understand these things. I would imagine that a police officer stops someone because they see something wrong. Now if they happen to mostly be non-caucasians, so be it.

I would also imagine if they looked at the studies, police pull over more teens than people of any other age group...is this some how an age discrimination thing? No..it's that more teens are doing stuff that necesitate them being pulled over.

Posted by: bluesamurai22

Actually, some of the racial disparity in stats is due to the fact that the minority population tends to be younger than the white population. Young drivers are stopped more because they are bad drivers - a higher percentage of young drivers being stopped will show a statistical difference in racial makeup compared to the general population.

Other factors contributing to the imbalance in stats are more patrol in high-crime areas, younger and more active officers being assigned to high-crime areas, underreporting of minority population in census data, improper marking of citations by officers, an influx of unlicensed foreign nationals and poor people having older cars with more mechanical problems.

While I do think there may be a handful of bad apples out there who are looking at race before or after they make traffic stops I think most of the problems come from how these stats are gathered and compiled. The only accurate way to measure for disparities is to measure specific sections of roads at specific times and see if there are any differences between the racial make-up of actual violators vs. violators who are stopped and cited. Simply counting tickets and comparing them to a census is hardly scientific and it contributes to racial division.

A Boston Globe reporter contacted me after seeing me post on this subject here. I suggested that he do a ride-along and see if he could tell what race drivers were before they were stopped. He said it was a great idea but I never heard anything from it. I guess his bosses figured it would ruin this line of stories forever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOT_II

I never understand these things. I would imagine that a police officer stops someone because they see something wrong. Now if they happen to mostly be non-caucasians, so be it.

I would also imagine if they looked at the studies, police pull over more teens than people of any other age group...is this some how an age discrimination thing? No..it's that more teens are doing stuff that necesitate them being pulled over.

Posted by: SGT_GRUNT_USMC

Who cares as long as Cops are stopping bad guys

Posted by: GD

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGT_GRUNT_USMC

Who cares as long as Cops are stopping bad guys

Your right who cares!!! Unfortunately, thanks to these as#holes I sure will be completing a third test. Or another idea being floated is a permanent racial box when a citation is handed out so they can keep stats.

Posted by: mapd

I am so sick of this racial profiling whining by these lefty-educrats.

This has got to stop once and for all. How about this?...don't commit a crime and you won't become a statistic.

Man..these liberal are ruining the State here in Massachusetts (but I guess that aint news)

Posted by: SinePari

C'mon, we all knew that this group of nerds from NE were going to twist the numbers however they see fit. If it's not plain obvious that the number of stops vs the numbers of searches among minorities is askew, they will take the numbers down to the ludicrous. Such as "After 9pm, a disproportionate number minorities were stopped and their vehicle was searched." Or, "If the violation was equipment related, a search was conducted more often than a traffic violation." Etc.

How about drawing boundries around your minority demographics of each city. Therefore we can all agree that police patrol resources are more dedicated to high-crime areas, and not spread evenly throughout the city. I live in a great neighborhood, of a city that has one of the highest crime rates in the state. But I NEVER see locals stopping and searching cars in my area. Coincidence?

And guess what, there are mostly young families with decent incomes in my 'hood. There's no crime to report, other than the "your neighbor asks that you shovel the snow on your part of the sidewalk" call. So they're no patrols in this area, no motor vehicle stops, no searches and nothing to report on the stats. If I asked the PD to send more patrols to my area, they'd laugh and say "there's nothing to do there. We're too busy downtown to send patrols in your neighborhood."

It's simple combat doctrine: dedicate your resources where they're needed.

Posted by: stm4710

I also love how the study doesnt take into account the race of the officer(s).

Posted by: topcop14

Quote:

Originally Posted by stm4710

I also love how the study doesnt take into account the race of the officer(s).

Stop Stop. You are giving them more ideas. Before you know it they will redesign the tickets again and add another new set of boxes.
Thank God my department does not have to do those silly traffic stop reports. If they come up with any more paper work every cop will need an secretary to get it done.

Posted by: 2-Delta

"disproportionately" doesn't seem to be an appropriate term unless they have facts that 1) there are far less minorities in the town than caucasians at any given time and 2) that all the minority stops were bad stops. I'd like to see the numbers and the offenses. It's probably a study that lasted 10 minutes and ended as soon as the stats came back with a total of 3 people stopped...1 white and 2 black.

Posted by: bluesamurai22

According to this article minority officers are sometimes more "racist":

http://www.boston.com/globe/metro/pa.../072003b.shtml

It's pretty ridiculous. It probably has more to do with the fact that more minorities are working in police departments now. These officers would be younger and tend to be doing more enforcement and would be assigned to busier beats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stm4710

I also love how the study doesnt take into account the race of the officer(s).

Posted by: RPD931

Just my observation so I might be wrong, but I thought the white folks are the minorities in Providence... ???

If I lived in a predominately black or hispanic neighborhood and got pulled over, do you think I could play the race card because I'm white? These studies are total bullshit! I understand that its important to prevent biased law enforcement, but to merely say that Police are racially profiling because they stop or arrest a high rate of minorities is BS. There needs to be more evidence to back these accusations than mere citation numbers. These "Researchers" are trying to create an issue where one does NOT exist.

They need to re-examine their so-called data. For example, how many of these "minorities" were stopped at night during dark hours when we normally wouldn't be able to see a person's race.

Posted by: SinePari

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPD931

If I lived in a predominately black or hispanic neighborhood and got pulled over, do you think I could play the race card because I'm white?

I actually had a white guy complain about getting pulled over in a mostly Hispanic part of the city. His first words upon making contact with the operator: "What, a white guy can't drive through here without getting pulled over!!!???"

He got a little reminder (gig), that stopping at stop signs is not a "suggestion".

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