Black drivers in California stopped and searched more than others, state study shows
Black drivers in California are more likely to be pulled over by the police and searched than white drivers, according to data released by the state in response to a 2015 law aimed at quantifying racial profiling among law enforcement agencies.
The study found police in large California law enforcement agencies were 1.8 times more likely to use “reasonable suspicion” as the cause to pull over a black person than they were a white person.
The report also found police were three times more likely to search a black person who had been stopped than they were a white person. Only Native American drivers were more likely than blacks to be arrested as a result of a search.
The California Department of Justice released the data on Thursday, fulfilling one of the first steps of a law written by Assemblywoman Shirly Weber, D-San Diego. Weber proposed it to “reestablish trust between law enforcement and communities of color.”
At the time, Weber said the law will allow Californians to “shed light on the scope of these problems and hold those bad officers and departments accountable, while also finding a set of best practices when law enforcement gets it right.”
By 2023, every department in the state will be required to submit data to the justice department for review.
Last year, Weber also wrote a law signed that changed the standard for when law enforcement officers can use deadly force.
“For 400 years, people of color have often had a different kind of justice than others in this nation,” Weber said when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the use-of-force law. “After 400 years of demonstrating our commitment and humanity to this nation, we deserve fairness and justice.”
The Thursday report is based on traffic stop data from eight of California’s largest law enforcement agencies: The California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, San Diego Police Department and San Francisco Police Department.
Black people make up just 6 percent of California’s population, yet they accounted for 15 percent of traffic stops reported by the state’s eight largest law enforcement agencies between July 1, 2018 and April 1, 2019.
By comparison, white people make up 35 percent of the population, and accounted for 33 percent of stops, while Hispanic people make up nearly 41 percent of the population and accounted for nearly 40 percent of stops.
Members of the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, which consists of activists and law enforcement leaders, called the data “a critical first step in the fight to end racial profiling.” Weber’s law created the board.
“For the first time ever, Californians have comprehensive racial and identity data on each stop and search conducted by police officers at the largest law enforcement agencies in the state,” said Sahar Durali, associate director of litigation and policy at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles and co-chairwoman of the advisory board.
Sacramento area law enforcement agencies are part of the “second wave” of law enforcement set to submit traffic stop data to the justice department by April 1.
The Sacramento Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, nonetheless, released some records about racial profiling complaints for the first report.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office recorded 303 complaints, including eight allegations of profiling. The Sacramento Police Department recorded four complaints, none of which were for profiling.
Kings County Sheriff Dave Robinson, a co-chairman of the advisory board, called the report “just the beginning of information that will allow even greater transparency for law enforcement and our communities – allowing us to grow together working on local and statewide areas of concern.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 5:11 PM.
