Racial Influences on the Likelihood of Police Searches and Search Hits: A Longitudinal Analysis from an American Midwestern City
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.2006.79.3.238 |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| Author | Fredrik H. Leinfelt |
| Subject Matter | Article |
FREDRIK H. LEINFELT
Research Analyst, Moorhead Police Department, Moorhead,
Minnesota
RACIAL INFLUENCES ON THE
LIKELIHOOD OF POLICE
SEARCHES AND SEARCH HITS: A
LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS FROM
AN AMERICAN MIDWESTERN
CITY
In the recent past, there has been a significant policy space and
political salience for issues pertaining to racial profiling and
alleged discriminatory police practices. Problems and ques-
tions surrounding racial profiling are important as they chal-
lenge the fundamental assumptions of our legal system by
corroding its most basic components of fairness and equality.
The systemic assumption is, of course, that police do not use
race as a criterion (or pretext) for discretionary traffic stops.
The present study examined traffic stop data from officer-
initiated traffic stops collected from a Midwestern American
police agency over a two-year period (N = 13,566). In con-
cordance with previous studies, multivariate analysis shows
that minorities were searched at a higher rate than are white
motorists. Results also suggest that police search minorities at
a disproportionate rate compared to whites and are less suc-
cessful in finding contraband on minority motorists.
In contrast to some previous research, however, findings
from the present analysis also showed large variations within
minority populations; Native Americans were searched four
times more than whites, Latinos were searched almost three
times more frequently than whites, and blacks were searched
below the overall ‘minority average’ in the examined jurisdic-
tion. These findings would suggest that a simple dichotomisa-
tion of race/ethnicity disguise and camouflage potentially
important racial differences.
In the recent past, few criminal justice agencies have been under
more empirical scrutiny than the police. In general, issues such as
police misconduct (Weitzer, 1999), police use of excessive force
(Alpert & Fridell, 1992; Hunt, 1985; Klinger, 1995), use of non-
lethal force (Garner et al., 1995; Klinger, 1995; Leinfelt, 2005;
Terrill, 2001; 2003), race and arrest (D’Alessio & Stolzenberg,
238 The Police Journal, Volume 79 (2006)
2003; Leinfelt, 2006), and unequal traffic enforcement patterns
(Cooper, 2002; Gabor, 2001; Harris, 1999; Lundman &
Kaufman, 2003; Novak, 2004; Smith & Petrocelli, 2001; Walker,
2001) have been salient in the police literature. In particular,
issues surrounding racial profiling and ‘driving while Black’
(Harris, 2002) have received a large amount of both empirical
and societal debate, fuelling heated controversies in social,
political and academic communities alike.
The focal point in these inquiries is whether or not law
enforcement agencies engage in unjust and prejudiced enforce-
ment of laws targeted against racial minorities. Empirical evi-
dence on the matter, however, has been largely esoteric and
principally dependent upon the definition of ‘racial profiling’
used by the investigators. Accordingly, recent findings have
formed two detached and diametrically opposed camps: on one
side of the spectrum are the American Civil Liberty Union
(ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) arguing that racial profiling is based
on the faulty premise that minorities have a higher proclivity for
committing drug-related offences (ACLU, 1999) ultimately
resulting in biased police behaviour. These prejudiced practices
reinforce the notion, perception, or belief that racial minorities
are involved in drug-trafficking (ACLU, 1999). On the opposite
side of the debate are certain police practitioners and admin-
istrators who posit that racially targeted searches represent sound
police work as they yield hits in terms of contraband and illegal
narcotics (see DEA, 1999).
Recent studies have gauged these alleged unfair police
practices by way of comparing police search activity to ‘hit
rates’ following police-initiated traffic stops (e.g., Cordner et al.,
2002; Lundman, 2004; Rojek et al., 2004; Zingraff et al., 2000).
For all intents and purposes, these ‘comparison’ studies typically
contrast racial composition of stopped drivers to ensuing police
activity (e.g. the search of driver, passenger, and/or vehicle). For
example, Lundman (2004) reported that preliminary data from
65 Minnesota jurisdictions (municipal and county police agen-
cies) indicate that minority drivers are searched more frequently
than are white drivers and that ‘hit rates’ for contraband are
higher among white motorists than among minority motorists.
Similarly, a study conducted by Cordner et al. (2002) reveals
matching results. Relying on preliminary police-reported data
from the San Diego Police Department, Cordner and colleagues
(2002) found that San Diego police officers searched vehicles
The Police Journal, Volume 79 (2006) 239
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