White Drivers Have More Contraband

A study of police traffic stops and car searches in Illinois has shown that minority drivers are more likely to be stopped by police and more likely to be asked permission to search the car - but much less likely than white drivers to have illegal items like guns and drugs in their cars.

President Barack Obama worked on starting this annual state study of race and traffic stops when he was a state senator, and he alluded to the study in his first round of remarks about GatesGate July 22. The racial numbers have been consistent since the study launched in 2004, but at least the number of times officers ask drivers for consent to search is declining overall. Some data from the 2008 study, via the Chicago Tribune:

• When a vehicle of a white driver was "consent-searched," officers statewide found contraband 24.7 percent of the time.
• When a vehicle driven by a minority was searched, officers found contraband 15.4 percent of the time.
• Minority drivers statewide were about twice as likely as whites to be asked for consent to search their vehicle.
• In Chicago, minority drivers were four times more likely to get searched, down from five times more likely in the last study.
• Statewide, minority drivers were 13 percent more likely than white drivers to be stopped.
• Overall, consent searches are down 30 percent since 2004.

"The fact is every single year we see these same numbers," said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois. "There is just a predisposition to believe minorities have contraband. ... The data and the indisputable nature of this is exactly what the president was talking about the other night."

My headline "white drivers have more contraband" is a slightly oversimplified way of looking at the issue. The more likely explanation for these numbers is that people of various races are just about equally likely to have contraband in the car, but the sheer number of searches of cars driven by people of color drives down the percentage. It's likely that officers only ask for consent from a white driver when there are serious signs of criminal activity, while they stop and search black drivers more routinely.

These numbers provide clear, undisputable proof of racial profiling at work. The ACLU calls for a moratorium on consent searches based on these numbers, and I'm with them.

Hat tip to The Crime Report for pointing me to this story.