scholarly journals Computer says no: technology and accountability in policing traffic stops

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Kinsella ◽  
John McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Stops

scholarly journals Racial demographics explain the link between racial disparities in traffic stops and county-level racial attitudes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierce D. Ekstrom ◽  
Joel Michel Le Forestier ◽  
Calvin K. Lai
Keyword(s):  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Racial Attitudes ◽  
County Level ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Arrest Rates ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Racial Demographics

Disparities in the treatment of Black and White Americans in police stops are pernicious and widespread. We examine racial disparities in police traffic stops by leveraging data on traffic stops from hundreds of U.S. counties from the Stanford Open Policing Project and corresponding county-level data on implicit and explicit racial attitudes from the Project Implicit research website. We find that Black-White traffic stop disparities are associated with county-level implicit and explicit racial attitudes and that this association is attributable to racial demographics: counties with a higher proportion of White residents had larger racial disparities in police traffic stops. We also examined racial disparities in several post-stop outcomes (e.g., arrest rates) and found that they were not systematically related to racial attitudes, despite evidence of disparities. These findings indicate that racial disparities in counties’ traffic stops are reliably linked to counties’ racial attitudes and demographic compositions.

May I Talk to You for a Minute? An Assessment of Street Stops and Officer Decision-Making

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110475
Author(s):  
Rob Tillyer ◽  
Michael R. Smith ◽  
Caleb D. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Insight Into

The overwhelming majority of research on officer-initiated contacts with civilians is drawn from traffic stops, while relatively little is known about officer decision-making during non-vehicular, street stops. The current study fills this gap by examining intrusive detentions, investigatory actions and enforcement activities undertaken by the police during street stops. Using data from a racially/ethnic diverse metropolitan area, analyses examine encounter-related variables, civilian and officer-related demographic characteristics, and contextual correlates of actions undertaken during these incidents. Conclusions drawn from this study provide specific insight into the patterns and practices of street stop encounters and offer a contribution to our broader understanding of police-civilian encounters.

Assessing Police Officers' Decision Making and Discretion in Making Traffic Stops in Savannah, Georgia, 2002

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey P. Alpert ◽  
Roger G. Dunham ◽  
Meghan Stroshine ◽  
Katherine Bennett ◽  
John MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Traffic Stops

Complex Colorblindness in Police Processes and Practices

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Welsh ◽  
Joshua Chanin ◽  
Stuart Henry
Keyword(s):  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Profiling ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Enforcement Policy ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Racial disparities in police-community encounters are well documented, with people of color experiencing higher levels of police scrutiny. Far less is known about how police officers perceive the racial dynamics at play in their work. As part of a 2016 study of traffic stops in San Diego, we conducted in-depth interviews with 52 city police officers. Despite evidence of racial disparities in SDPD practices related to post-stop outcomes, officers denied, minimized, or even condemned racial profiling during traffic stops; officers described operating under a neutral policy of “colorblindness.” Our analysis identifies cognitive and discursive mechanisms which explain this complex and contradictory picture. We find that officers’ accounts excuse, justify, or otherwise negate the role of race in routine police work, yet officers’ thoughts and actions are based on racialized and, at times, dehumanizing narratives about people and communities of color. These morally neutral accounts form a pattern of micro-racialized discourse, constituting a layering of racialized processes and practices that cumulatively produce racially disparate outcomes. We argue that rejection of explicit racism alone is insufficient to address the progressive micro-racial aggression that emerges at key points during police-community encounters. We discuss the implications for law enforcement policy and practice.

scholarly journals Out-of-Place and In-Place Policing: An Examination of Traffic Stops in Racially Segregated Philadelphia

2020 ◽  
pp. 001112872092612
Author(s):  
Lance Hannon ◽  
Malik Neal ◽  
Alex R. Gustafson
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Black People ◽  
White People ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Racial Categorization ◽  
Black Neighborhoods ◽  
Natural Tendency ◽  
White Neighborhoods ◽  
The Veil

It is commonly argued that Black people may be more likely to be stopped by the police in majority White neighborhoods due to a natural tendency to first observe and then scrutinize that which seems out of the ordinary. Anecdotal evidence of police officers appearing equally drawn to White people in predominantly Black neighborhoods is sometimes presented to suggest that the phenomenon is race neutral. Motivated by such narratives, we examine the extent to which Black versus White racial categorization encourages police scrutiny in out-of-place and in-place contexts. Applying the veil-of-darkness and vehicle search threshold tests, we find that in place or out of place, being seen as White is always an advantage in Philadelphia.

Traffic Stops and the Emotional Driver

1998 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-376
Author(s):  
Angela V. Woodhull
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Stops

Making an impression in traffic stops: Citizens’ volunteered accounts in two positions

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 613-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mardi Kidwell ◽  
Heidi Kevoe-Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Traffic Stops ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Organizational Constraints ◽  
Traffic Violations ◽  
Police Action ◽  
Important Character

When citizens are pulled over by police for traffic violations, they often volunteer accounts for their driving conduct. These accounts convey important character qualities about the citizen, as well as exigencies (e.g. they are late) that motivate officer response. We use the method of conversation analysis to show that where a citizen positions an account in the course of an encounter is subject to different interactional-organizational constraints, which in turn afford citizens different resources for self-presentation. We also show that officers are sensitive to citizens’ accounts and respond to them in differentiated ways. In addition to being a resource for self-presentation, citizens’ volunteered accounts are a resource for motivating and shaping police action.

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