Searching for Efficient Enforcement: Officer Characteristics and Racially Biased Policing

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

“…We test the following two hypotheses using Baron and Kenny's analytical approach (1986). First, building on previous research (Close & Mason, 2007;Pickerell et al, 2009;Rosenfeld et al, 2012;Tillyer et al, 2012), we hypothesize that encounters involving Black citizens will be positively related to the initiation of discretionary searches, net of other factors. Second, as suggested by M. Smith et al (2006), it is conceivable that race effects may be attenuated once suspicion is fully considered.…”

“…Some examinations of discretionary searches demonstrate that Black and Hispanic citizens were more likely to be searched compared to White citizens (Close & Mason, 2007;Pickerell et al, 2009), whereas other studies indicate null effects for the relationship between the citizen's race/ethnicity and the likelihood of discretionary search (Fallik & Novak, 2012;Paoline & Terrill, 2005;M. Smith & Petrocelli, 2001).…”

“…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.…”

Spatial and temporal aggregation in racial profiling

“…Close and Mason (2007) conduct a parametric analysis on data of the Florida Highway Patrol and include county-specific variables such as the local crime and poverty rate or the share of minority residents in the county's population. 7 Their results suggest that local conditions affect the search pattern of the police.…”

“…Recent stop and search data include circumstantial information, allowing for more conclusive inferences. Close and Mason (2007) for example test for racial prejudice via a logistic regression that links enforcement action to both motorist and officer characteristics as well as poverty and crime rates at the location of the enforcement. They find that despite controlling for these factors, race remains a highly significant predictor for a search.…”