Search Results For Contraband Police
In nearly every jurisdiction we find stopped black and Hispanic drivers are searched more often than white drivers. But if minorities also happen to carry contraband at higher rates, these higher search rates may stem from appropriate police work. Disentangling discrimination from effective policing is challenging and requires more subtle statistical analysis, as we do below.
Search results for contraband police
For example, say police officers have a small universe of types of drivers they stop. In fact, suppose there are just two types of white drivers: some of the white drivers have a 5% likelihood of carrying contraband, and the others have a 75% chance of carrying contraband. Suppose there are also just two types of black drivers: some black drivers have a 5% chance of carrying contraband, and the others have a 50% chance of carrying contraband.
When we apply the threshold test to our traffic stop data, we find that police require less suspicion to search black and Hispanic drivers than white drivers. This double standard is evidence of discrimination.
As with all statistical tests of bias, our threshold test has limits. For example, if officers suspect more serious criminal activity when searching black and Hispanic drivers compared to white drivers, then lower search thresholds for these groups may be the result of non-discriminatory factors. Our results are just one step in understanding complex police interactions.
CHICAGO - An annual report released this month by the Illinois Department of Transportation reveals that Illinois State Police troopers continued to ask motorists of color for permission to search their car without cause at a higher rate than white drivers during 2010. The report documents that the pattern identified by the ACLU of Illinois in its complaint recently filed with the U.S. Department of Justice continued in 2010. Hispanic motorists were 3.38 times more likely than Caucasian motorists to be asked for a consent search. African American motorists were nearly 3 times (2.96) more likely. And, as in the past, contraband was more frequently found in searches of white motorists.
The new IDOT report follows an administrative complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois in June asking the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the substantial racial disparate impact caused by consent searches conducted by Illinois State Police troopers of Hispanic and African American motorists. The data for 2010 is consistent with data collected and reported over the past several years by IDOT demonstrating that ISP troopers are more likely to ask Hispanic and African American motorists for consent to search their vehicles, but are more likely to find contraband when consent searching a car driven by a Caucasian motorist. A consent search occurs when a police officer does not have legally sufficient cause to require a search, yet nevertheless asks for permission to conduct a search.
Even though motorists of color were more likely to be asked for permission for a consent search, they were less likely to be found to have contraband than their Caucasian counterparts. Indeed, a white motorist who is consent searched is 89% more likely than a Hispanic motorist to have contraband and 26% more likely than an African American driver.
The IDOT report is the most recent presentation and analysis of data collected under the Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Act of 2003 (originally championed by State Senator Barack Obama). The 2010 report also reveals that minorities statewide (based on more than 1,000 reporting law enforcement agencies) were twice as likely to be subjected to a consent search, but less likely to be found with contraband as a result of such a search.
Police in undertaking a warrantless search of an automobile may not extend the search to the persons of the passengers therein304 unless there is a reasonable suspicion that the passengers are armed and dangerous, in which case a Terry patdown is permissible,305 or unless there is individualized suspicion of criminal activity by the passengers.306 But because passengers in an automobile have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the interior area of the car, a warrantless search of the glove compartment and the spaces under the seats, which turned up evidence implicating the passengers, invaded no Fourth Amendment interest of the passengers.307 Luggage and other closed containers found in automobiles may also be subjected to warrantless searches based on probable cause, regardless of whether the luggage or containers belong to the driver or to a passenger, and regardless of whether it is the driver or a passenger who is under suspicion.308 The same rule now applies whether the police have probable cause to search only the containers309 or whether they have probable cause to search the automobile for something capable of being held in the container.310
300 Michigan v. Thomas, 458 U.S. 259 (1982). The same rule applies if it is the vehicle itself that is forfeitable contraband; police, acting without a warrant, may seize the vehicle from a public place. Florida v. White, 526 U.S. 559 (1999).
Similar to games like The Mortuary Assistant, you play in first person view, and will have multiple jobs to do. Document checking is the easy part, but as time goes on, you have more responsibilities. A government order forces you to pay attention to the country of origin on a passport. Notices of criminal activity require searching cars and tearing open goods in search of contraband. You also drive convicted criminals to labor camps, while dropping off contraband at the main police base.
Virginia launched the mandatory data collection in July, requiring police all over the state to begin documenting demographic data about who they stop and for what reasons. The records also detail whether a search was initiated and any enforcement action taken.
Black drivers were also the most likely to have their vehicles searched, though the data suggests those searches were less likely to turn up the contraband police were looking for, with 23 percent of searches involving a Black driver ending in an arrest compared with 27 percent of White drivers.
The most common contraband was drugs or drug paraphernalia, found in a little more than 60,000 searches. The second most common category is other, which includes alcohol and cell phones (presumably evidence). In 18,507 searches, the officer found a weapon or ammunition. In more than 11,000 instances, the officer found property, which includes money that was either illegally held or was evidence.
The data also include information on the basis for the search, and searches most likely to yield contraband or evidence are searches when the officer reports either seeing or smelling (which includes canines) contraband or evidence. Officers more often report such basis for searches in stops of Black individuals than white (see Technical Appendix Table A2), which in turn means that when we adjust for the basis, the gap more than doubles to -2.3 percentage points. Put differently, officers discover contraband in their searches of Black people about 10 percent less than in searches of white people.
Adjusting for differences across law enforcement agencies does not appreciably change the Black-white gap in yield rates. Furthermore, when we break down contraband and evidence by separate categories (weapons, drugs, property, or other), the discovery rate gap is entirely driven by a lower likelihood of finding drugs in searches of Black than white Californians. The estimated gap, adjusted for all factors, is a statistically significant difference of -2.7 percentage points between the Black and white yield rate for drugs (Technical Appendix Table B5).
Generally, traffic stops have the greatest Black-white disparities, especially among local law enforcement agencies. Roughly two-thirds of traffic stops are for moving violations, while about one-third are for equipment and non-moving violations; in these traffic stops, more than three times the share of Black Californians than white Californians are then searched by police and sheriff departments (Figure 8; Technical Appendix Table A10).
When drivers are searched during stops for traffic violations, the search is less likely to yield contraband or evidence than when the stop is for reasonable suspicion, outstanding warrant, or known parole/probation, especially in the relatively rare searches in CHP stops.
However, when local law enforcement agencies search white Californians during traffic stops, the yield rate is somewhat higher than during stops for reasonable suspicion, outstanding warrant, or parole/probation. The Black-white gap for yield rate is notable: some contraband is found in 25.1 percent of searches of white people and in 19.1 percent of searches of Black people. Both local and statewide agencies report higher yield rates for Black than white Californians when stopping for reasonable suspicion.
Black Californians are significantly more likely to be stopped than white Californians, and experiences during stops and outcomes afterward also vary. We find that Black individuals are more than twice as likely to be searched as white individuals. Overall, searches yield some kind of contraband or evidence in slightly more than one-fifth of searches.
The lower share of searches yielding contraband and higher shares of stops without enforcement suggest such practices may be inefficient. Similarly, experiences during a stop are more intrusive for Black individuals than white, even when we adjust for differences in contexts. 041b061a72