Study that says police targeting minorities in traffic stops has many blind spots

In a recent study, advocacy groups Catalyst California and the ACLU of Southern California suggest that deputy sheriffs and police officers in California are spending more time targeting minorities on pretextual traffic stops than responding to calls for service. From the same study that was published in October 2022, California lawmakers are cautioned that by maintaining adequate funding for law enforcement and strengthening public safety, it is "disproportionately harm[ing] communities of color by annually funneling billions of dollars to sheriff's departments that prioritize racially biased patrol activities."

The occupant's race is not known before a traffic stop is conducted

The mobile digital computers (MDC) inside a patrol vehicle are connected to the California DMV through the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS). The DMV access allows an officer to run a license plate through their MDC. The information provided by the DMV to a license plate inquiry is the year, make, and model of the vehicle; whether the vehicle is stolen or has a warrant attached to the license plate; the registered owner's name and address; and if the vehicle was impounded or stored. However, from a license plate inquiry, the registered owner's race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or national origin is not provided to the officer.

In the vast majority of traffic stops conducted by law enforcement officers, the race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or national origin of the driver or occupant are unknown to that officer prior to pulling the vehicle over, which is the very reason why traffic stops are so inherently dangerous for law enforcement officers. This is especially true of a vehicle that has tinted windows or if the traffic stop is being conducted at night.

Certainly, there are some situations where vehicles have their windows rolled down or an officer may even ascertain information about the driver from the vehicle's rearview mirror, but in most situations, the officers are not afforded the luxury of knowing who they are pulling over until the officers make contact with the occupants of a vehicle.

Proactive policing and pretext traffic stops

Pretextual stops are a necessary tool for a street cop in an effort to proactively maintain the safety of the community. It is always preferred for a policeman to prevent a crime rather than solve one; the vaccine is much more effective than the antidote. The police should not be handcuffed from protecting the community. Pretextual stops are the vaccine to prevent violent crimes from happening, drug sales from occurring, and property crimes from taking place. One may ask, "What if an officer had stopped an active shooter before a mass shooting took place?" An officer should be provided the exercise of the officer's discretion in initiating a perfectly lawful traffic stop and further the detention by conducting a safe, thorough, fair, and unbiased investigation for the necessary period of time dictated by that traffic stop.

If the police are handcuffed from doing their jobs, the only victim is the people who live in the community. The police must be empowered with the freedom to protect the community, not be called "racist" and "gang members" by the very community they swore an oath to protect and serve.

As a matter of law, the United States Supreme Court has long held that an officer may utilize a minor traffic infraction as a pretext for stopping a vehicle in order to investigate another crime. Additionally, an officer's subjective intentions are irrelevant to the lawfulness of the search. Whren v. United States (1996) 517 U.S. 806, 813. But unreasonably prolonging an otherwise completed traffic stop is not lawful, unless the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that a more serious offense is being committed. People v. Ayon (2022) 80 Cal.App. 5th 926, 936. This is the perfect balancing test: allowing an officer to conduct an investigation for a reasonable period of time- if the officer cannot articulate any reasonable suspicion beyond the period of time necessary to complete the investigation, then the motorist must be let go.

Location, location, location

The finding from the October 2022 publication of Catalyst California suggests that California sheriff's departments "dedicate significant patrol time (and in turn, public resources) to racially biased pretextual stops that undermine community safety." In addition, another finding published by Catalyst California suggests that the "impact of sheriff's departments' patrol activities is extremely detrimental to people of color because they are far more likely to experience numerous harms as a result of pretextual stops."

This study (p. 26) provided a comparison chart of different ethnic groups who were stopped by the deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on traffic stops. Unsurprisingly, the study failed to show where those traffic stops were conducted which led to the conclusion: Blacks are stopped three times higher than other ethnic groups.

For instance, according to the 2020 census, 83% of Malibu is White, while in Athens, Blacks make up about 53% of the population. This is to say that if the study's sample population was extracted from Athens, then naturally, due to the population of Blacks being 53%, then the logical reason why Blacks were being stopped three times more than the other races is that there are more Blacks living in that area than other ethnic groups.

On the contrary, if the study's sample population was obtained in Malibu, where the majority of its residents are White people, then the community should demand an explanation from the sheriff's department regarding the disproportionate number of Blacks who are being stopped in traffic stops.

The bottom line is that this study omits where the sample population of the comparable data was extracted and as such, no one is able to objectively measure whether Blacks, or any other race was profiled because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin.