Starting next month, all police agencies in Illinois must begin tracking the race of drivers in traffic stops, but the four-year state study might not provide much information on whether racial profiling is a problem in the state.
The Iowa State Patrol conducted a similar study over the past few years, and its experiences - along with the tracking efforts of cities such as Davenport - suggest that there are too many variables to yield conclusive results.
The Illinois General Assembly approved the study earlier this year, and it runs for four years, starting January 1. The Illinois Department of Transportation will collect the information from police agencies and pass it along to Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety for analysis. Northwestern will then create an annual statewide report, as well as reports for each individual agency.
But if the Iowa study is any indication, Illinois' research might not be very helpful in identifying or rectifying problem areas. If anything, the Iowa study shows some of the difficulties in figuring out whether there's a problem with racial profiling. (Racial profiling is a practice in which police stop or search a vehicle based of the driver's race rather than because of a violation.)
The Iowa State Patrol tracked its traffic stops from October 2000 through March 2002 and released a report this past April. On the surface, the report suggested that the Iowa State Patrol was stopping different races at a rate similar to their proportions in the Iowa population. For example, African Americans represent 1.8 percent of the Iowa population and 1.7 percent of Iowa-registered vehicles stopped. It also found that African-American and Latino drivers were more likely to be searched than white or Asian drivers. While whites were searched only 2.7 percent of the time they were stopped, African Americans were searched in 7.1 percent of stops and Latinos 10.3 percent.
But the report cautioned that those conclusions might not be accurate or meaningful. A key problem is that officers often couldn't determine a person's race, resulting in stops for people of "unknown" race accounting for 4.5 percent of traffic stops, compared to 2.5 percent for African Americans and 3.0 percent for Latinos.
"When the number of 'unkowns' exceeds the number in each race category save Caucasion, conclusions are difficult to draw and perhaps should not be attempted," the report states.
Additional problems come up in terms of comparing the information to demographic data. For one thing, a lot of people who are stopped are going to be from outside a police agency's jurisdiction. Beyond that, a jurisdiction's demographics might be significantly different from the demographics of people on the road in that jurisdiction at a particular time. Cities and states have "a very mobile population," said Davenport Police Chief Mike Bladel, whose agency began collecting information on stopped drivers' race and sex in 2001. "There really are no stable demographics for any particular time of day." That's particularly true of the Quad Cities.
Bladel said the Davenport Police Department's data suggests that "our officers have been acting professionally, and there's no pattern to who they've been stopping." In 2002, 18.7 percent of drivers stopped were African Americans, who represent 9.2 percent of the Davenport population. Yet Bladel also said the number of variables makes it "very difficult to find out what the data actually means." The Davenport Police Department plans to include the racial-profiling data for the first time in its next annual report, which should be released in February or March.
Davenport, like many jurisdictions, has looked at racial profiling and decided it doesn't have a problem. Most studies, in fact, suggest that racial profiling isn't nearly as prevalent a problem as it was once thought to be.
"The vast majority of agencies have found there's no evidence of systematic bias," said Alexander Weiss, director of Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety, which will be analyzing the Illinois data.
But, in some ways, that's the nature of racial profiling. "It doesn't tend to be systemic," Weiss said. "If you look at it agency-wide, you might not see it." In other words, a few officers might be profiling, but their numbers are offset - hidden - by the rest of force. Conversely, a few officers' stops might skew a department's numbers higher, suggesting an agency-wide problem where none exists.
Weiss said that the study might be best viewed as an "internal evaluation tool," helping departments identify areas for improvement. That's one reason the four-year duration of the study could be helpful. An agency that notices some problems after the first year can see if it makes progress in later years, he said.
While the information will be useful, it's unclear what will happen once it's collected and analyzed. Tom Kelso, who's coordinating the Illinois study for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said there's no indication in the racial-profiling legislation what steps the state will take once it has collected and analyzed the study data.
And the Iowa State Patrol has not taken any formal steps to follow up on its study, although it is communicating with the Iowa Department of Human Rights on training issues. "We haven't yet had the opportunity to do anything proactive" with the study, said James Saunders, public-information officer for the Iowa State Patrol.
For more information about Illinois' racial-profiling study, visit (http://www.dot.state.il.us/trafficstop/racialprofiling.html). The Iowa State Patrol study can be downloaded at (http://www.state.ia.us/government/dps/isp/Stop_Data.pdf).
The Iowa State Patrol conducted a similar study over the past few years, and its experiences - along with the tracking efforts of cities such as Davenport - suggest that there are too many variables to yield conclusive results.
The Illinois General Assembly approved the study earlier this year, and it runs for four years, starting January 1. The Illinois Department of Transportation will collect the information from police agencies and pass it along to Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety for analysis. Northwestern will then create an annual statewide report, as well as reports for each individual agency.
But if the Iowa study is any indication, Illinois' research might not be very helpful in identifying or rectifying problem areas. If anything, the Iowa study shows some of the difficulties in figuring out whether there's a problem with racial profiling. (Racial profiling is a practice in which police stop or search a vehicle based of the driver's race rather than because of a violation.)
The Iowa State Patrol tracked its traffic stops from October 2000 through March 2002 and released a report this past April. On the surface, the report suggested that the Iowa State Patrol was stopping different races at a rate similar to their proportions in the Iowa population. For example, African Americans represent 1.8 percent of the Iowa population and 1.7 percent of Iowa-registered vehicles stopped. It also found that African-American and Latino drivers were more likely to be searched than white or Asian drivers. While whites were searched only 2.7 percent of the time they were stopped, African Americans were searched in 7.1 percent of stops and Latinos 10.3 percent.
But the report cautioned that those conclusions might not be accurate or meaningful. A key problem is that officers often couldn't determine a person's race, resulting in stops for people of "unknown" race accounting for 4.5 percent of traffic stops, compared to 2.5 percent for African Americans and 3.0 percent for Latinos.
"When the number of 'unkowns' exceeds the number in each race category save Caucasion, conclusions are difficult to draw and perhaps should not be attempted," the report states.
Additional problems come up in terms of comparing the information to demographic data. For one thing, a lot of people who are stopped are going to be from outside a police agency's jurisdiction. Beyond that, a jurisdiction's demographics might be significantly different from the demographics of people on the road in that jurisdiction at a particular time. Cities and states have "a very mobile population," said Davenport Police Chief Mike Bladel, whose agency began collecting information on stopped drivers' race and sex in 2001. "There really are no stable demographics for any particular time of day." That's particularly true of the Quad Cities.
Bladel said the Davenport Police Department's data suggests that "our officers have been acting professionally, and there's no pattern to who they've been stopping." In 2002, 18.7 percent of drivers stopped were African Americans, who represent 9.2 percent of the Davenport population. Yet Bladel also said the number of variables makes it "very difficult to find out what the data actually means." The Davenport Police Department plans to include the racial-profiling data for the first time in its next annual report, which should be released in February or March.
Davenport, like many jurisdictions, has looked at racial profiling and decided it doesn't have a problem. Most studies, in fact, suggest that racial profiling isn't nearly as prevalent a problem as it was once thought to be.
"The vast majority of agencies have found there's no evidence of systematic bias," said Alexander Weiss, director of Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety, which will be analyzing the Illinois data.
But, in some ways, that's the nature of racial profiling. "It doesn't tend to be systemic," Weiss said. "If you look at it agency-wide, you might not see it." In other words, a few officers might be profiling, but their numbers are offset - hidden - by the rest of force. Conversely, a few officers' stops might skew a department's numbers higher, suggesting an agency-wide problem where none exists.
Weiss said that the study might be best viewed as an "internal evaluation tool," helping departments identify areas for improvement. That's one reason the four-year duration of the study could be helpful. An agency that notices some problems after the first year can see if it makes progress in later years, he said.
While the information will be useful, it's unclear what will happen once it's collected and analyzed. Tom Kelso, who's coordinating the Illinois study for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said there's no indication in the racial-profiling legislation what steps the state will take once it has collected and analyzed the study data.
And the Iowa State Patrol has not taken any formal steps to follow up on its study, although it is communicating with the Iowa Department of Human Rights on training issues. "We haven't yet had the opportunity to do anything proactive" with the study, said James Saunders, public-information officer for the Iowa State Patrol.
For more information about Illinois' racial-profiling study, visit (http://www.dot.state.il.us/trafficstop/racialprofiling.html). The Iowa State Patrol study can be downloaded at (http://www.state.ia.us/government/dps/isp/Stop_Data.pdf).
