Race is factor in police stops

 

Law enforcement officials recently revealed that when someone is pulled over for a traffic stop, it isn’t always random.

 

A study produced by police officers from three departments in Chittenden County and UVM police services suggests that racial disparities exist in rates of traffic stops.

 

“What we find is there is a fairly consistent pattern of statistically significant racial disparity in Burlington and South Burlington,” UVM professor of economics Stephanie Seguino said at a press conference April 2.

 

Segunio sought to answer three questions in analyzing data from traffic stops made by Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and UVM police officers from 2009-2010:

 

1. Are you more likely to be pulled over as a minority?

2. Are men as a gender, regardless of race, more likely to be pulled over?

3. Are the penalties harsher for minorities after traffic stops?

 

African Americans are twice as likely to be stopped by Burlington and South Burlington police officers proportionate to their representation in the general population, according to the study.

 

Further results of the study conclude:

 

·      African Americans were 25 percent more likely to be stopped by UVM police

·      Following a traffic stop, minorities were more often searched, arrested and received harsher penalties than whites in all of the areas of study.

·      Penalties imposed following a traffic stop were nine percent heavier for blacks in Burlington, and Hispanics received harsher penalties than whites from UVM police 14 percent of the time.

·      Blacks were 70 percent more likely to be arrested than whites in Burlington.

·      Blacks were twice as likely to be searched by Burlington police than whites.  In South Burlington, they were five times as likely.

 

Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling said these results don’t necessarily indicate the presence of racial profiling.

 

“The report does not say that racial profiling exists,” he said.  “It shows that disparities exist.”

 

With this data, Schirling said he hopes to discern the causes of such disparities and take measures to eliminate any such inequalities.

 

“This tool will continue to help inform our future conversations, shape our continued efforts and help guide us to the next step in the important process of mitigating bias in policing,” Schirling said.

 

The study was the second of its kind, and is the result of a joint voluntary effort by the four departments and members of the community to pursue equality in the criminal justice system, Schirling said.

 

Seguino said that a more comprehensive and accurate assessment in this area would come in the future as more data becomes available.

 

Racial disparities in law enforcement have been a hotly debated issue in Vermont in recent months.

 

Following the release of studies evincing these trends, the Vermont House passed a bill in March that would fund a comprehensive study of policing practices across the State, said House Rep. Bill Lippert, who is chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

 

The bill would also require that all Vermont law enforcement agencies adopt a bias-free policing policy, Lippert said.