Blacks, Latinos More Likely to Be Arrested After CHP Stops
The California Highway Patrol was slightly more likely to arrest Latinos and blacks than whites, according to a CHP report that looked at more than 2 million traffic stops over nine months.
Gov. Gray Davis ordered the CHP to start keeping race and ethnicity data last year after he vetoed a bill that would have required such information from police departments statewide.
California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick said the study shows no apparent racial bias by his officers because minorities were not over-represented in traffic stops. Only after people were stopped was there a higher rate of minority arrests.
“When you’re going by on the highway at 70 or 80 mph, it’s pretty difficult to tell who’s inside,” Helmick said. “Originally, people tried to advance the idea that we were stopping people based on race. Once an officer stops somebody, they do their job.”
The report looked at 2.1 million traffic stops over a nine-month period, ending in April.
The CHP did not say how often drivers were searched, and provided no geographic breakdowns that might show whether minorities were targeted in certain areas.
Michelle Alexander of the American Civil Liberties Union’s racial justice project criticized the report as deliberately inconclusive.
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