Police search Hispanics’, Natives’ vehicles twice as often

 

By Lori Pilger
Lincoln Journal Star

 

Nebraska’s police officers searched vehicles of Hispanics and Natives they stopped nearly twice as often as the overall population in 2005.

And black motorists stopped by officers were six times more likely than white motorists stopped to be taken into custody.

That’s according to a report released Friday by the Nebraska Crime Commission called “Traffic Stops in Nebraska” that analyzed the number of stops made by police and the race or ethnicity of those stopped between 2002 and 2005.

In each of those years, more than 200 state law enforcement agencies submitted data for the report. During that span, white drivers accounted for 86 percent of those stopped, blacks accounted for 4.9 percent, Hispanics 6.8 percent and Natives 0.8 percent.

“We are a diverse state, and my district is even more diverse than some, and I have had complaints,” said State Sen. Matt Connealy of Decatur.

He said his northeast Nebraska district has two reservations — the Omaha and the Winnebago Native reservations — and a growing immigrant population.

That’s why Connealy said he wrote the law — to ban racial profiling and to begin collecting the data in 2001 as a way to improve law enforcement stops.

“It shows the public whatever race they are that we take this seriously, and it’s a policy of the state of Nebraska to make stops for cause,” he said.

Plus, Connealy said, the reports are creating a database that academics and law enforcement professionals can look at to determine how they are doing.

In the past couple of years, he said he’s heard fewer complaints about racial profiling.

But that’s not to say collecting a few years of data is all that should be done.

“I think that it’s something that we have to continue to monitor,” Connealy said.

But Michael Behm, executive director of the Nebraska Crime Commission, cautioned against making assumptions about the numbers.

He chaired the Racial Profiling Advisory Committee that collaborated on the report.

Behm said the summary data — collected from city, county and state agencies — isn’t detailed enough to analyze if, or where, racial profiling is happening. Unfortunately, that’s not an easy question to answer, he said.

“We’re only gathering summary data and there’s no way to track individual instances,” Behm said.

For a complete analysis, he said, the committee agreed there would need to be much more detailed data collection and resources for analysis.

As it is, Behm said he anticipates continued meetings to look at the statistics, which cover nearly two million stops in the state, to see if members have any recommendations for changes.

And, he said, he intended to ask members if there should be any changes made to future reports.

Behm said one of the limitations pointed out in the report is the need for more detailed data for analysis, “as opposed to just a summary of the data.”

But that likely would take additional resources for the agencies collecting the data, too, he said.

That’s not to say he doesn’t see value in the reports as they are — data describing drivers’ race, the reason for the stop, the outcome of the stop and if there was a search.

“It does serve as a basis for constructive discussions between police and citizens regarding ways to reduce racial bias and/or perceptions of racial bias,” Behm wrote in the report.

The report will spur some discussion, Behm said, but he hopes people will take the data for what it is and not make assumptions about it.

That’s not part of our responsibility,” Behm said.

He said the report does provide a place to document specific allegations of racial profiling.

According to the report, 36 complaints have been filed since 2002, four of which came in 2005. All had been reported to agencies that conducted internal investigations and determined officers had followed policy.

“I believe that the public views this as a positive step that a complaint of racial profiling doesn’t just get filed into a drawer somewhere,” Behm said.

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.

A case for race

A report released Friday examining traffic stops by more than 200 state law enforcement agencies from 2002-2005 showed blacks, Hispanics and Natives were more likely to be arrested and searched during traffic stops than whites.

 

Arrests by race

Blacks: 19 percent

Hispanics: 8 percent

Natives: 9 percent

Whites: 3 percent

Searches by race

Blacks: 5 percent

Hispanics: 6 percent

Natives: 7 percent

Whites: 3 percent