Tread carefully
A question posted to NICAR-L in March asking for warnings about interpreting race and traffic stops prompted a flood of discussion. Answers to this question varied, but the general consensus was that analyzing traffic stop data for any indication of race discrimination is a thorny proposition. This is a condensed version of that discussion. To see the full thread, search the NICAR-L archives at www.ire.org/datalibrary/nicarl.htm
Terminology
Distinguish between traffic stops and tickets. Robert Bennicasa, of Gannett News Service, wrote: "But I'd be wary of inferring that tickets were 'legitimate' or not, or constituted harassment, on the basis of conviction rates between two groups. The groups might tend to have different reasons for and rates of challenging tickets, with some factors being lack of time, lack of faith in the system, ability to pay the fine, ability to get time off work to go to court, etc. Also, one group might have a lower threshold for challenging tickets, pleading not guilty to 'legitimate' tickets more frequently, and the other group might only challenge those that are more defensible in court."
Demographics
Determining the demographics of highway users is necessary in order to put the data into context. If there is a higher proportion of tickets given to minorities, that would not be unusual if the particular geographical area in question is predominately minority. Determining this, however, could be time consuming. The best suggestion offered was to collect the information yourself by sitting alongside a roadway for a few days. Steve Doig, of Arizona State University and formerly of The Miami Herald, did just that for a traffic ticket study of a one-main-street small town in South Florida. Another reporter and Doig spent a day counting heads of drivers at the main intersection. "The biggest problem with racial profiling stories is data tends to be incomplete and unless you're willing to do the field collection that Steve Doig suggests, it's hard to prove the police's excuses are wrong," wrote Drew Sullivan, formerly of The Tennesseean. Sullivan wrote a racial profiling story in February 2000 (www.tennesean.com/sii/00/02/20/my profile 20.shtml).
To figure out who is on the road, Sullivan said you can't look at Census numbers because blacks tend to be younger and the number of black drivers is less than their population as a whole. If you look at drivers in a city or county, you're not getting the commuters or people driving on the Interstate. Then there's the problem of whether or not to include drivers with suspended/rev or cancelled licenses.
Minor offenses
Beware that socio-economics may play a role, i.e. tickets for minor offenses such as equipment problems, making it inaccurately appear race is a factor.
Frank Kummer, of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., wrote: "I would guess that if the city in question is mostly minority, the tickets would reflect that. So, a story saying more blacks are ticketed might be incorrect. Secondly, tickets for so-called small offenses can be misinterpreted as simple harassment. For example, you see a ticket issued to a black motorist for 'improper use of horn.' You might assume then that he was stopped simply for being black. You might be right. But, you also don't know if the cop actually 'downgraded' from a bigger offense to give a driver a break. This happens quite frequently. "I think it's easy for us not to like cops and assume the worst. Indeed, that's easy to do so given our experiences. But I also believe you should approach it objectively."
A few last bits of advice: Study which officers gave the tickets, and study the types of offenses. And one more from Drew Sullivan: "Be careful how you use the term racial profiling as well. It has a specific meaning using race as part of a profile of a person likely to commit a certain type of crime. I'm guessing it came about when drug interdiction programs set up specific profiles of drug couriers. If race was part of that profile, it was racial profiling and the ACLU got mad. The point is the police are looking for a specific crime usually drugs. It's not the same as a cop giving a ticket to a black motorist because the motorist is black. That's more akin to racism than racial profiling."