Search and Seizure, Racial Profiling, and Traffic Stops: A Disparate Impact Framework

Abstract

In response to nationwide attention to the issue of racial profiling, numerous law enforcement agencies have reexamined their policies and collected data on the racial demographics of motorists stopped and searched by police. This article advocates a "disparate impact" framework for understanding the relationship between race and searches and seizures. Using data on the Washington State Patrol, analysis indicates that disparities in the proportions of racial minorities searched by the Patrol are likely not the result of intentional or purposeful discrimination. Additionally, factors such as age, sex, time of day, and the number of violations that motivated the stop affect the likelihood of a search.In response to high-profile cases of racial profiling, the question of whether police officers discriminate against racial minorities has been a major concern for many law enforcement agencies, public watchdog groups, and academic researchers (Fredrickson and Siljander 2002;Tomaskovic-Devey, Mason, and Zingraff 2004). As a result of nationwide attention to the issue, numerous law enforcement agencies have reexamined their policies and have collected data on the racial demographics of motorists stopped by police. As a result of these efforts, it is the "stop decision" that has received the bulk of the empirical attention thus far (see, e.g., Batton and Kadleck

Opening the Black Box of Officer Decision-Making: An Examination of Race, Criminal History, and Discretionary Searches

“…Recently, racially based inequality in police treatment of citizens has been the primary focus of research examining traffic stop encounters, the most common type of police-citizen interaction (Eith & Durose, 2011). Research findings indicate differential treatment of minority citizens, not only in all types of searches (Engel & Johnson, 2006;Roh & Robinson, 2009;Rojek, Rosenfeld, & Decker, 2004;Withrow, 2004), but specifically, in discretionary searches (Close & Mason, 2007;Pickerell, Mosher, & Pratt, 2009) and in police-citizen encounters involving young, Black males (Rosenfeld, Rojek, & Decker, 2012;Tillyer, Klahm, & Engel, 2012). This evidence suggests that officers are engaging in discretionary searches of minority citizens at a disproportionate rate.…”

The Value of Quantitative Analysis for a Critical Understanding of Crime and Society

“…This evidence on racial profiling in traffic stops is mixed, with some studies suggesting that police do engage in profiling on these occasions (Alpert et al 2005;Engel and Calnon 2004;Higgins et al 2008;Lundman and Kaufman 2003) but with other studies finding no evidence of profiling (Lange et al 2005;Persico and Todd 2008;Pickerill et al 2009). The evidence on arrest is also mixed.…”

Discrimination Data Analysis: A Multi-disciplinary Bibliography

“…We refer to the surveys (Tillyer et al, 2010;Engel, 2008) for extensive references. Recent additional approaches include (Anbarci & Lee, 2008;Blalock et al, 2007;Pickerill et al, 2009;Ridgeway, 2006).…”