[MVS]

NU study confirms racial profiling against nonwhite drivers
May 4, 2004
BOSTON -- A crackdown by the state on local police departments because of racial profiling when pulling over motorists could result in less traffic stops, an attorney said.
"De-policing is a real possibility," John M. Collins, general counsel for the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said Monday, one day before a report on racial profiling was to be released. "When somebody is falsely accused, they're not going to continue to give you the bullets to shoot them with."
The study by Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice sponsored by the state Department of Public Safety found that three out of four police departments in Massachusetts have engaged in racial profiling against nonwhite drivers, The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday. The study confirmed a Boston Globe study of traffic tickets last year.
Four years ago, the state Legislature ordered a test for racial profiling in the Bay State. Those that failed the test -- as many as 249 departments, including state troopers -- could be ordered by state Public Safety Secretary Edward A. Flynn to submit more documentation on their future traffic stops.
The additional paper work could be required of departments that showed a disparity on any one of Northeastern's four statistical tests: ticketing resident minorities more than whites, compared with their share of the resident population, as judged by the 2000 Census; ticketing all minorities more than whites, compared with their share of the comminity's drivers, as estimated by Northeastern; searching minorities more often than whites, and issuing warnings to whites more often then to minorities.
Police departments that failed at least one test range from the Boston Police Department to the tiny Martha's Vineyard community of Aquinnah, ith 344 year-round residents, nearly have of them American Indians.
According to the study, 15 police departments failed on all four tests, 42 failed on three tests, 87 failed on two tests and 105 failed on only one. The Department of Public Safety said 92 communities received a passing grade on all tests -- the largest being Agawam, a Springfield suburb of 28,000 people.
Police departments can appeal Flynn's decision to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.
For its study, the Northeastern researchers studied 1.6 million traffic citations issued between April 1, 2001, and June 30, 2003.
© Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Thanks Flynn... :2up:

 

[csauce30]

Yeah...please...noone write any cites for "nonwhite" drivers, regardless of the offense. It could very well be racial profiling. Forget about the fact that they were driving 70 in a 30, or blew 3 redlights, or failed to stay in marked lanes.

As a separate example...

I bet the fact that the majority of arrests for Poss. Class B w/intent to Distribute (specifically crack cocaine) in Boston are effected on "nonwhite" suspects as a result of racial profiling...It couldnt be that those particular suspects were the ones engaged most commonly in the crack cocaine trade in Boston??...right...

 

[PBC FL Cop]

What a waste of money. Too bad they didn't spend these resources putting more cops on the street, instead of telling cops to look the other way when it comes to minority suspects. :evil:

 

[Deuce]

Damn guys don't you get it? We are only allowed to stop and cite white males between the ages of 20 and 38 of average height and weight driving red race cars.....

 

[MVS]

I think this guy hit it jsut right..

"De-policing is a real possibility," John M. Collins, general counsel for the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said Monday, one day before a report on racial profiling was to be released. "When somebody is falsely accused, they're not going to continue to give you the bullets to shoot them with."

 

[ryan933]

What a joke! :roll:

I suppose the jails are full of minorities due to racial profiling as well. :shock:

Ryan

 

[CapeCodPolice]

From the May 5th issue of the Cape Cod Times.

More data ordered on police stops
Cape Cod officials challenge a racial profiling study's results.

By FREDERICK MELO
STAFF WRITER
A new state-sponsored study finds that police departments on Cape Cod are more likely to give non-white drivers a traffic ticket, while letting white drivers off the hook.

The study found more than two-thirds of the 366 law enforcement agencies across the state issued a disproportionate number of traffic citations to racial minorities.

On Cape Cod, the report found that trend especially obvious in Barnstable and Yarmouth.

The two-year study, commissioned by the Legislature and conducted by Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice, stopped short of calling the results clear evidence of racial bias among traffic officers.

"It's not measuring whether racial profiling exists," said Amy Farrell, the institute's associate director.

"We can't get into their heads, and determine their decision-making process. What we can do is find trends ... and then ask the question: Why do those disparities exist?"

Police chiefs on Cape Cod challenged the study's research methods, arguing that the results were skewed by tourism and other factors.

They also said that $1 million in state funds targeted toward a second, more in-depth look at traffic stops next year should instead go toward anti-bias training and outreach programs.

"Most chiefs are not hearing from the minority community that there is a major problem," said Bourne Police Chief John Ford, a past president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

"The study is definitely flawed in the way they took the statistical information. The raw numbers don't mean anything."

The study
The Northeastern University analysis released yesterday examined 1.6 million traffic citations issued by between April 1, 2001, and June 30, 2003.
The state required police during that period to record motorists' race and gender when they issued traffic citations or written warnings. The study included community and university departments as well as the state, MBTA and Amtrak police.

The report created statistical benchmarks for evaluating departments in four areas:

Whether non-white drivers are cited disproportionately when compared with the area population.

Whether non-white drivers are cited disproportionately compared with the racial demographic of people driving in the area.

Whether non-white drivers are more likely to receive a traffic citation, as opposed to a written warning.

Whether non-white drivers are more likely to be searched.

Across the state, most departments registered racial disparities in at least one or two of those four categories.

The Barnstable Police Department, however, joined just 14 other agencies in receiving statistically significant marks in all four categories.

The departments in Yarmouth and Falmouth and the Massachusetts State Police showed disparities in three areas.

The Brewster, Eastham and Provincetown departments were among 92 communities that showed no statistical evidence of racial disparity.

Tourism factor
The report notes, however, that certain results could be skewed in communities that attract high numbers of tourists or commuters from more than 30 minutes away.
"This artificial benchmark may work for a stable community, like a bedroom community," Barnstable police Sgt. Sean Sweeney said. "We have a huge influx of people on weekends."

Data in many communities was also incomplete, particularly in the area of vehicle searches. Funding for the Registry of Motor Vehicles to record information about written warnings was limited, so only 142 agencies were studied in that category.

"The (departments) that have these flying colors, a lot of these people aren't fully reporting their data," Sweeney said. "You're almost getting penalized for fully cooperating."

Through the Cape Cod Police Chiefs Council, Barnstable police have met with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other advocacy groups to discuss race-based traffic stops, which began receiving national attention in the 1990s.

Sweeney and Barnstable Police Chief John Finnegan also sit on a state task force that examines racial profiling issues.

Still, Barnstable will join hundreds of other departments that will have to keep even more detailed records of their traffic stops as a result of this study.

Public Safety Secretary Edward A. Flynn said yesterday that 249 agencies must participate in a new and more rigorous analysis of their traffic citations.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, those agencies - which include all but Brewster, Eastham and Provincetown on Cape Cod - will be required to fill out detailed forms about their traffic citations for another year.

"We have a suspicion that racial profiling is going on somewhere," Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katie Ford said.

"We've narrowed it down to these 249 communities where we have discrepancies ... between minority and white drivers. Let's explain that discrepancy."

(Published: May 5, 2004)

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/moredata5.htm

 

[USMCTrooper]

"We have a suspicion that racial profiling is going on somewhere," Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katie Ford said.

Wasn't there "suspicion that" witchcraft "is going on somewhere" once upon a time in a town named Salem??? :shock:

 

[BostonIrishAngel]

Here's a question. In areas where there are large numbers of minorities, isn't it more likely that a minority will be pulled over or stopped, rather than someone who is a non minority? And call me crazy, but rather than assume cops are targeting minorities just because of their race/ethnicity, maybe those minorities did something to warrant being targeted? (i.e. traffic violation,etc).

 

[MVS]

What really sucks about this report is the fuel it will provide the minority community to cry "racial profiling" in future cases. As it is, most "defendants" try to claim they were targets of racial profiling and now this half assed report will give defense attorney's leverage in that claim, especially if your agency is on that list where "disparities exist".

Where does it end? This is Mass, not Mississippi....

As the state has financial stuggles, I have difficulty seeing the reasoning behind paying NU a million bucks for additional studies... How can it cost $1million? The studies are conducted by a couple of professors and a bunch of students.... Where's the million spent?

 

[Burner1]

Just another excuse for the "minority" special interest groups to jump on the "race card" band wagon. Which of course, to the educated and informed, a long standing weak argument. Does it happen out there? Sure it does, but because of the few that do, it skews the results. Too bad everyone has to be penalized for the ones that do profile.

 

[Anonymous]

I think we failed all four tests. Ooops. Ya the study is flawed, of course every city has some guy that is known for this kind of thing. But the numbers are way off and makes us all look bad as usual.

[unnecessary comment edited by admin. Watch it.]

 

[SRRerg]

I agree with the Voice. I decided a little while back that warnings weren't going to help the driver's of the Commonwealth learn to slow down. If I'm standing in the BDL, you're geting the gig.

 

[MVS]

I think it's pretty simple... folks would not be stopped if they obeyed the law. If they violated the law, then why is that an issue? What's the racial make-up (%) of jail/prison inmates??

 

[GD]

Racial profiling is all about money!! In Rhode Island, they did the study and found every large city was profiling. Now the genius's need another study to compare the first study to. What a joke!!!! When the police are no longer stopping the cars and the gang bangers are shooting people then we will watch the liberals scream how the police aren't doing the job. This is a no win situation for law enforcement.