In our deeply divided country, sometimes we see things in black and white. One of those areas tends to be the area of criminal justice, often focusing on the question of whether one is “pro-police” or “anti-police.” But to create safer communities, healthier children, and more civic-minded adults, we must think about whether some traditional policing methods promote or undermine these goals and examine the data.
This past fall, Empire Justice Center created its Police Reform Project. Katie Blum and I chose pretext stops as our first topic. Pretext stops are when police lawfully stop motorists, cyclists, or even pedestrians for low-level non-safety stops, when their real goal is to stop them for another reason that is not lawful. These stops may be for a broken light over a license plate, an item dangling from a rearview mirror, or no bell on a bicycle. The unlawful reason may be racial profiling, or the desire to investigate an incident when there is an insufficient legal basis to stop the person for that incident.
What we discovered is that there have been numerous studies evaluating low-level, non-safety stops, and finding, time and again, that there are racial disparities in who gets stopped and who gets searched – people of color facing far more frequent stops and searches. We wrote a report reviewing the data and addressing the harmful impact of this type of racially disparate policing, “Stop the Stops – The Disparate Use and Impact of Police Pretext Stops on Individuals and Communities of Color.”
The literature reflects the harm caused to individuals and communities by these stops. As noted in “Pulled Over – How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship” by Charles Epp, et. al.,
Ultimately…these stops erode peoples’ sense of empowerment and ‘run the risk of further undermining social control and a community’s capacity for self regulation.’ Worse, they may so embitter neighborhood residents toward the police that people decline to cooperate in police investigations or even come to share a norm, like ‘no snitching,’ against cooperating with the police. The basic observation of a generation of research is that neighborhood cooperation, both among residents and with the police, is a key condition for reducing the rate of crime…When people are not willing to call the police or cooperate with police investigations the police have very little to go on.
So whether one considers themselves to be “pro-police” or “anti-police” or somewhere in the middle, the effect of racial disparities in these traffic stops is undeniable – the use of low-level non-safety stops in racially disparate ways not only harms individuals and communities, but imperils community safety.
Despite the harm caused by these stops, they have been ruled lawful by the United States Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals. But we believe we can make a change.
In writing our report, we learned that there have been laws passed in several states and cities intended to reduce or eliminate the racial disparities of these stops. Some police departments and prosecutors’ offices have developed policies to respond to the problem. These members of law enforcement have recognized that eliminating these biased stops is better for communities. As one Public Policy director stated, “We’re not talking about less enforcement, we are talking about better enforcement.” (Kenneth Barone, Manager of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project and Associate Director of the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy.)
As our work has continued in this area, we have partnered with the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology and JustCause to evaluate whether and to what extent racial disparities exist in the Rochester area, and what the mental and physical health impact of these stops are on those stopped and those who are with them. We have formed a statewide coalition to develop responses and solutions to these problems. And we have presented to community and legal organizations in order to spread the word.
If you are interested in having us present to your group, please contact Jill Paperno at jpaperno@empirejustice.org or Katie Blum at kblum@empirejustice.org. Check out our web page here. Join our newsletter by signing up here. And please, spread the word!