Report: Black drivers more likely to be pulled over than white drivers in area

Black drivers are far more likely to be pulled over and arrested by Missouri police, according to a report released June 1.

By law, the office of Missouri's attorney general has produced a yearly vehicle stops report since 2000. The most recent report showed Black drivers in Missouri are 71% more likely to be pulled over than white drivers and 25% more likely to be arrested.

Local numbers aren't much different.

According to the report, Black citizens make up 11.29% of Cape Girardeau's total population — based on 2019 data from the U.S. Census Bureau — yet they accounted for nearly a quarter of Cape Girardeau Police Department's total traffic stops in 2020.

Black residents make up less than 3 percent of Jackson's population, according to the report. However, Black drivers make up 6 percent of total vehicle stops in the city last year. Data from the report suggests they are almost twice as likely to get pulled over by police than white drivers.

Scott City Police Department stopped 11 out of the city's reported 13 Black residents.

Police response

Local police departments deny any racial bias within their policing.

"When it comes to traffic stops, we stop specifically for violations that were committed," Jackson police Lt. Alex Broch said. "We do not stop [drivers] based on the color of their skin or what gender they are. We solely base any stop on whether someone violated the law."

Jackson Police Department officers take one-hour, required race and anti-basis training every year, Broch said.

The same goes for officers within the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Sgt. Joey Hann said officers within the department complete racial-profiling, implicit-bias and cultural sensitivity training on an annual basis.

"Our department has a zero-tolerance stance on racial profiling, and if such an allegation is made against an officer, we have measures in place to review the complaint for validity," Hann said.

Cape Girardeau officers began wearing body cameras in 2018. The cameras automatically activate when sirens or lights on a patrol car are turned on.

"It is well known within our ranks that prejudice or bias against any race will not be tolerated," Hann said.

Broch said a large majority of Jackson's traffic stops happen when officers can't discern a driver's race, such as at night.

"When making traffic stops at night, it is very hard to see the driver of the vehicle prior to the stop," Broch said.

Many drivers Jackson police pull over are not residents of the city, according to Broch.

The report stated only 35% of traffic stops conducted by Missouri law enforcement agencies involved residents of their jurisdiction.

Hann said Cape Girardeau serves as a hub for numerous other cities in Southeast Missouri, so a large number of motorists Cape Girardeau police conduct traffic stops on are not residents.

Out of the 3,699 total traffic stops conducted by the Cape Girardeau Police Department, 2,209 of them were residents.

Calculating disparities

Police departments throughout the state send their traffic stop data to the Missouri Attorney General's Office every year. The report uses the data from police and the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate disparities and stop rates.

One measure the report used to gauge disparities in police stops is the disparity index, or the ratio of a group's share of traffic stops divided by that group's share of the population.

If a group is represented equally in traffic stops relative to its population, the disparity index is equal to one. Anything over one means a group is overrepresented; a disparity index less than one equals underrepresentation.

Police stops for white drivers in Cape Girardeau led to a disparity index of .88. Black drivers had a disparity index of 2.2, meaning they were more than twice as likely to be stopped by police than white drivers.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office reported disparity indexes teetering around 1 for both Black and white resident populations. This means police did not pull over one group significantly more or less than the other.

The report notes several factors other than bias could lead to disparities in vehicle stops:

• Law enforcement may concentrate patrols to specific areas that are more densely populated by one racial or ethnic group.
• Certain groups may have different economic or social disadvantages that could prime a person for crime.
• Disparities could be skewed if data was not accurately reported.

With these points in mind, the report notes the disparity index does not provide effective evidence of bias in policing.

Hann said the Cape Girardeau Police Department does review the attorney general's report to "attempt to gather usable information."

Hann said the report is shortsighted "and problematic as a stand-alone system of drawing concrete conclusions."

Still, the Missouri chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a travel warning to people of color to use "extreme caution while visiting."

The advisory, first issued in 2017, was based in part on conclusions found in vehicle stops reports. It's still in effect today.

The full report may be read here https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/vsr/2020-vsr-agency-report.pdf?sfvrsn=1136d659_2.