This story was reported and written by Radio IQ.
A new analysis of traffic stops by police in Virginia shows race is still an issue. Chuck Meire with the non-profit Julian says they looked at 107 communities with sufficient data -- checking to see if the number of arrests, personal and vehicle searches, warnings and citations was higher for Black people than Whites.
“Ninety-four police departments showed statistically significant racial disparities in at least one of those areas, and 39 police departments showed significant disparities in three or more of those areas,” Meire says.
The most populous places – like Arlington, Chesterfield County and Roanoke – were most likely to have racial disparities, and the state itself was the biggest offender.
“The Virginia State Police actually stand out to be the agency that failed the most tests over time," he concludes.
And the state capitol didn’t fare much better.
“Richmond's disparity ratios were very high. If you were Black and you were stopped by the Richmond Police Department, in this time period you were about 13 times as likely to have your person searched than a White person, and if you were stopped for a traffic violation you were five times more likely to be arrested than a White person."
Julian’s report does show an improvement in some other places over the 39-month period surveyed.
“Over time the number of departments that failed statistical tests of disparity has decreased.”
He thinks that’s because of a relatively new state law that limits reasons for traffic stops and because marijuana is now legal. The authors hope their report proves useful to Virginia’s attorney general.
“If it looks like there is a pattern or practice – a local department violating the rights of their citizens -- the attorney general can investigate and try and determine what is happening and can actually go to a court to help compel some policy changes within that department.”
Julian also suggests this analysis could be helpful to legislators and police.
“This is really a starting point to raise questions and to try and collect more data to figure out what is actually going on here.”
Like why a suspect was searched and whether anything was found, when and where the search took place. Such details could help police and state lawmakers to better understand this problem and to reduce racial disparities in traffic stops, tickets, searches and arrests.
You'll find the report here: https://www.julianfreedom.org/data-visualization-report
