Police are more likely to use force if the driver is Black than if they are White in nearly all types of traffic stops.
Millions of traffic stops occur nationwide for reasons unrelated to safety. Officers not only use traffic stops as a pretext to conduct a search or investigate for other crimes but they may also be incentivized to make them because they are used as criteria in performance metrics and grant evaluation. This brief explores racial disparities in traffic stops and police use of force, drawing on findings from the Center for Policing Equity’s (CPE) analysis of 24 local law enforcement agencies and eight large agencies in California. The findings confirm that Black drivers experience higher rates of non-safety stops and discretionary searches compared to White drivers. Additionally, non-safety stops are more likely to involve the use of force than stops for dangerous driving, further illustrating how non-safety traffic stops increase Black drivers’ exposure to police use of force. To develop a solution that adequately addresses the disproportionate use of force, the authors conclude with a call for more research examining the impact of reforms reducing non-safety traffic stops and their harmful and inequitable outcomes.
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Key Findings:
- In all 16 jurisdictions where data on stop reasons were available, Black drivers faced a higher proportion of non-safety stops compared to White drivers.
- Officers were three times more likely to search White drivers during non-safety stops than safety stops and seven times more likely to search Black and Latino drivers during non-safety stops than safety stops. Despite this, contraband discovery rates were similar for safety and non-safety stops (19.5 percent vs. 21.3 percent).
- Police were 1.9 times more likely to use force on White drivers during non-safety stops compared to safety stops. This likelihood increased to 2.9 times for Black drivers and 2.4 times for Latino drivers in non-safety stops versus safety stops.