Racial Profiling and the St.Cloud Police Department

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Racial Profiling and the St.Cloud Police
Department
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Racial Profiling

• Minnesota Legislature defines racial profiling
  as, Any action initiated by law enforcement that
  relies upon the race, ethnicity, or national
  origin of an individual rather than (1) the
  behavior of that individual or (2) information
  that leads law enforcement to a particular
  individual who has been identified as being
  engaged in or having been engaged in criminal
  activity. Racial Profiling includes use of
  racial or ethnic stereotypes as factors in
  selecting whom to stop and search. Racial
  profiling does not include law enforcements use
  of race or ethnicity to determine whether a
  person matches a specific description of a
  particular subject.

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Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling Report

• St. Cloud volunteered to participate in report
• Statistics taken from 2002
• There were 8,849 traffic stops in 2002

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Population Percentage vs. Traffic Stop Percentage

• St. Cloud Comparison of Stops to Driving Age
  Population

White Black Amer. Indian Asian Latino
Population Percentage 93.3 1.7 0.7 3.4 1.0
Traffic Stop Percentage 88.3 6.6 0.4 3.3 1.4
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Who are They Pulling Over?
Black White
Expected Stops 148 8258
Actual Stops 581 7815
Relative Difference 292.6 -5.4
Black White
Expected Stops 83 8424
Actual Stops 581 7815
Relative Difference 596.4 -7.2

• Driving Age Population on Left
• Household Vehicle Availability Rates on Right

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Disposition of Stop
white black
arrest 3.6 5.7
citation 37.1 45.3
No Action 1.6 3.4
warning 57.7 45.5
Total Stops 7800 580
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Do you mind if I look around the car a little
bit?

• Statistically significant?
• 8,849 traffic stops vs. 436 searches
• Searches are more personal, face to face contact
• Discretionary Searches vs. Nondiscretionary
  Searches

• Officers have five reasons on traffic stop forms
  for authority to search
• Driver gave verbal permission
• Driver signed a consent to search form
• Search was conducted to ensure to officers safety
• Officer observed contraband
• Search was conducted incident to arrest

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Whos Being Searched
Total Stops Searches Total Search Rate Dis. Searches Dis. Search Rate
White 7809 359 4.6 189 2.4
People of Color 1034 77 7.4 41 4.0

• Black People were stopped 581 times and searched
  49 times. Thats a search rate of 8.3. Their
  discretionary rate was 4.3

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What They Found in Those Searches
Searches Contraband Found Hit Rate
White 187 68 36.4
People of Color 40 12 30.0

• Statistics for Discretionary Searches