Searching for answers
Experts say racial disparity among stops warrants investigation

by Alison Walker-Baird and Nancy Hernandez
News-Post Staff

	Erica and Mervyn Bond, both of Frederick, were stopped twice in a two-week period by the same Frederick County Sheriff's Office deputy. Staff photo by Graham Cullen
	Results of stops: warnings vs. citations State Hispanics stopped by state police were more likely than all other races to be given a traffic citation rather than a warning. While 42 percent of whites, 42 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Asians were given a citation, 53 percent of Hispanics stopped were cited. About 33 percent of Hispanics were given written warnings, compared to about 43 percent of whites, blacks and Asians. Drivers not given citations or warnings by the three police agencies were issued safety equipment repair orders. Among state police stops, about 16 percent of whites and blacks and 14 percent of blacks and Hispanics received repair orders. City Among stops by the Frederick Police Department, Hispanics were about as likely to be given a traffic citation as whites and Asians: About 50 percent of Hispanics stopped were cited, compared to 50 percent of whites and 49 percent of Asians. Blacks stopped by city police were less likely than all other races to be given a traffic citation rather than a warning: 43 percent, compared to about 50 percent of whites, Hispanics and Asians. County Among stops by the sheriff’s office, Hispanics were more likely than blacks or whites to receive a warning rather than a citation: 75 percent were warned, compared to 67 percent of blacks and 61 percent of whites. Whites were slightly more likely than blacks or Hispanics to be cited rather than warned: 23 percent of whites received a citation, compared to 20 percent of blacks and 17 percent of Hispanics. — — — Asians under-represented in stops, searches Asians as a group were less likely to be stopped or searched by police than other races. While Asians make up 3 percent of licensed county drivers, Asians made up from 0.5 to 2 percent of all police stops. Among discretionary police searches, Asians were less likely to be searched than any other race, a trend in all three police agencies. Sheriff’s office data also showed Asians were less likely than all other races to be given a traffic citation and more likely to receive a warning. “Compared to whites, Asians are seen as model citizens,” said Laura Moore, a Hood College sociology professor who reviewed the traffic stop data. “Their low proportion of stops and searches may be a consequence of officers not thinking of them as engaging in suspicious activities,” she said.

In July 2006, a Frederick couple was stopped twice by the same Frederick County Sheriff’s Office deputy.

After their car was searched and towed for what they consider innocuous and arbitrary offenses, Erica and Mervyn Bond reported their experiences to the sheriff’s office internal affairs division.

The sheriff’s office is investigating at least one complaint against the deputy but declined to comment on the number or the nature of the allegations, citing confidentiality.

The Bonds, who are black, were initially stopped by the white deputy on East Patrick Street for dark window tinting.
“It went from the tint to had we been smoking marijuana,” Erica Bond said.

Both were searched and their sleeping son roused from the back seat. Nothing illegal was found.

Their experience may not be an anomaly.

Blacks and Hispanics were more likely than white drivers to be searched by police officers after a traffic stop, an investigation by The Frederick News-Post found.

The News-Post analysis found blacks were two to three times as likely as whites to be searched during traffic stops by Maryland State Police, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and the Frederick Police Department.

Hispanics were more likely than whites to be searched during traffic stops by state troopers and sheriff’s deputies, though slightly less likely than whites to be searched by city officers.

The News-Post reviewed nearly 115,000 records contained in databases of 2002-2005 traffic stops compiled by the three police agencies.

Prompted by a 1993 racial profiling lawsuit against Maryland State Police, a 2001 Maryland law requires law enforcement agencies to keep and submit records each year on all discretionary traffic stops.

The requirement is set to end Dec. 31. A bill introduced earlier this month in the Maryland Senate, SB 1027, would extend the requirement through Dec. 31, 2009.

The 11-member Judicial Proceedings Committee of the Maryland General Assembly unanimously voted Friday to send the bill to the senate. The bill is expected to be voted on this week.

The county’s traffic data analyzed by The News-Post is striking, highly different from what one would expect from traffic stop data in which race plays no role, said Mary Gray, an American University mathematics and statistics professor who reviewed the data in February.

“These figures are so disparate they’re unlikely to be explained by anything besides picking on non-whites,” she said.

Hood College sociology professor Laura Moore, who also reviewed the data, said the findings should prompt internal examinations of policing procedures at each agency.

“How is it that minorities are more likely searched after being stopped, and whites are less likely to be searched?” Moore said. “How is that happening here? How does that get explained?”

She cautioned the data provide a description of traffic stops but can’t indicate racial profiling.

Representatives from each police agency stressed in interviews this month only drivers violating legitimate traffic laws were stopped. Strict internal and external controls are in place to ensure subsequent searches are justified, officials said.

“We go to great, great pains to make sure our deputies don’t go out there and make stops based on profiling,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said. “We have never seen anything to indicate these deputies are anything but fair and competent.”

Blacks, Hispanics subject to higher search rates

When the Bonds were stopped a second time, the deputy had the couple’s 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix towed for a two-week insurance lapse in 2004, although it was insured at the time of the stop.

The Bonds doubted their second encounter with the deputy was by chance.

“It was like he was upset because he couldn’t find anything on a black person the first time, so he tried again,” Erica Bond said.

Among all agencies and races, no more than 3 percent of drivers were subjected to a discretionary search.

Discretionary searches include searches justified by consent, probable cause, exigent, or pressing, circumstances and police dog searches, in which a police dog searched the vehicle because the officer suspected drugs were inside.

Searches following arrests are required and non-discretionary.

“Our policy is clear,” said Lt. Mark Carter, commander of the Maryland State Police’s professional policing division. “When we have troopers stopping an automobile, a search is not done haphazardly.”

Troopers must be able to articulate a reason for a search; they can’t indiscriminately ask for consent, Carter said.

Moore said even agencies’ strictest prohibitions against police making decisions based on race can’t completely prevent underlying or even subconscious bias playing a role.

“Traffic stops are procedures,” Moore said. “The officer gets to make decisions along the way, such as whether there’s a reason to search — this is a place where potential discriminatory behavior could come in.”

The Bonds said the deputy told them he stopped them the second time after running a check of their license plates and discovering the earlier insurance lapse, which happened when they switched insurance agencies.

“We said, ‘Why did you run our tags? Why are you here again?’” Erica Bond said.

They were told they had stopped on, not behind, the white line on the road next to a stop sign.

Their Pontiac was towed. The Bonds and their 6-year-old son were left standing on the side of a Md. 85 exit ramp during the evening rush hour.

Blacks, Hispanics over-represented in stops, searches

A Frederick traffic judge accepted the Bonds’ explanation for the insurance lapse and didn’t require them to pay any fines.

The stop still cost the couple $500 to get their Pontiac back from the towing company and an additional $1,200 to repair it.

They don’t know what happened, but the car wouldn’t run when they arrived to pick it up, Mervyn Bond said.

The Bonds question why the insurance lapse wasn’t a problem during their initial stop two weeks earlier.

“In my mind, he was thinking this is the car I stopped two weeks ago,” Erica Bond said. “If I couldn’t get them then, I’ll get them now.”

Blacks consistently made up greater proportions of police stops than expected, based on blacks’ representation among city residents and licensed county drivers.

Among stops by state and city police, Hispanics were also over-represented and whites made up smaller proportions of traffic stops than expected.

Analysis of deputies’ stops of Hispanic drivers is less conclusive than similar analysis of state and city police stops because of how the sheriff’s office characterizes Hispanic drivers.

Sheriff’s office data listed only about 320 drivers stopped as Hispanic, less than 1 percent of deputies’ stops and discretionary searches.

While state and city police marked Hispanic drivers separately from other races and ethnicities, sheriff’s deputies more often than not characterized Hispanics as “white” or “other.”

Maryland traffic code specifies a driver’s race must be recorded as Asian, black, Hispanic, white or other.

However, the sheriff’s office data entry system, approved by the Maryland Justice Analysis Center, has allowed deputies to classify Hispanics drivers as “other” or “white” with an indicator in a separate ethnicity category, Jenkins said.

The category with this indicator was not included in data submitted to The News-Post.

Frederick Police Chief Kim Dine said stop rates being higher than a race’s representation among city residents may be due to community policing.

To a greater extent than state or county police, city officers’ traffic stops and searches are more concentrated in areas where residents have expressed concerns about problems, such as drug trafficking or speeding, he said.

When those areas happen to have high minority populations, then minorities will comprise a higher proportion of stops and searches, said Bill Douwes, crime analyst for the Frederick Police Department.

“Geography plays a role,” he said.

Some searches unnecessary

Disparity among “hit” rates — police seizing drugs or other property because of the search — in discretionary searches suggests blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites to be searched by city and county police unnecessarily.

“The stopping and searching look like harassment rather than law enforcement,” Gray said. “The data are very indicative something is going on here.”

If race were not a factor in deciding who to search, rates of seizure of property or contraband after discretionary searches should be similar for all races, she said.

Among all agencies and races, the majority of discretionary searches failed to result in a hit.

The Bonds were stopped the first time along East Patrick Street for dark window tinting.

The couple said their windows met the legal tint limit; Maryland law requires tinting to permit at least 35 percent light transmittance.

The couple was cited not for the tinting but for displaying their license plate in the Pontiac’s front window rather than on the bumper.

City

City police were less likely to seize property or contraband from Hispanic drivers than blacks and whites following discretionary searches.

About 30 percent of Hispanics searched by city officers during discretionary searches had property or contraband seized, compared to 50 percent of blacks and whites.

County

Sheriff’s deputies were less likely to seize contraband or property following searches of blacks and Hispanics than whites.

About 28 percent of whites searched in discretionary searches had property or contraband seized, compared to 17 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Hispanics.

Discretionary searches of blacks were significantly less likely than whites to produce a hit.

Among probable cause searches of blacks, 23 percent produced a hit, compared to 68 percent of whites. Among consent searches, 5 percent of blacks produced a hit, compared to 15 percent of whites.

The Bonds believe the deputy who stopped them may use the broad application of probable cause to hassle minorities. They were searched during the first stop because the deputy told them he could smell marijuana, Mervyn Bond said.

A month later, their cousin and his friend, both of whom are black, were searched for the same reason near the same location by a deputy.

Their cousin was pulled over for supposedly making an illegal lane change.

“They didn’t get charged with anything,” Erica Bond said.

State

Among stops by state troopers, discretionary searches of whites were less likely than blacks or Hispanics to produce a hit. About 32 percent of whites had property or contraband seized, compared to 36 percent of blacks and 38 percent of Hispanics.

Data warrants further investigation
There’s no easy way to explain why blacks and Hispanics represented a higher proportion of drivers stopped and searched than expected, Moore said.

“It could be that minorities are more likely to engage in some kinds of illegal acts that would make them more prone to being stopped and searched than whites,” she said. “An equally valid explanation is profiling by officers.”

Both warrant further investigation, Moore said.

What is clear, she said, is regardless of how many whites or minorities are engaging in illegal activities on the road, whites are much less likely to be caught doing them.

Sociologist and University of South Florida criminology professor Lorie Fridell said traffic stop data can rarely be used to measure racial bias among police officers.

“Stakeholders have high expectations in terms of what the data can tell us,” she said. “The data can tell us whether disparities exist, but it cannot pinpoint the causes of those disparities.”

Fridell, author of “By the Numbers: A guide for analyzing race data from vehicle stops,” is research director for the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, a research-based association of local and national police agency executives.

In the 2004 book, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, she outlines the difficulties and even impossibility of evaluating traffic stop data to find evidence of racial profiling.

The Bonds are waiting to learn what will be the outcome of their complaint against the deputy.

The couple decided to sell their Pontiac several months ago and haven’t been stopped since.

“We eventually got rid of it because we figured (if we didn’t) the deputies would keep messing with us,” Erica Bond said.