Assessing the Fairness and Effectiveness of Bicycle Stops in Tampa

• Author: Greg Ridgeway,Ojmarrh Mitchell
• DOI: 10.1177/1098611118781344
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Assessing the Fairness

and Effectiveness of

Bicycle Stops in Tampa

Ojmarrh Mitchell

1

and

Greg Ridgeway

2,3

Abstract

This research investigates the fairness and effectiveness of making a large number of

bicycle stops as a proactive policing strategy designed to reduce unsafe riding and

crime in Tampa, Florida. Public concern about the fairness and effectiveness of this

tactic was magnified by a 2015 newspaper article that noted racial disparities in

bicycle stops by the Tampa Police Department (TPD). Our analyses found that

there are large racial disparities in bicycle stops, which cannot be explained by

differences in ridership as measured by our benchmark, bicycle crashes with

injury. The observed racial disparities in bicycle stops appear to be attributable to

TPD’s crime control efforts, though we cannot rule out some racial bias. Given that

crime control was a motivating factor for TPD’s use of bicycle stops, we assessed the

effect of bicycle stops on crime using a natural experiment. We found that bicycle

stops did not have a meaningful effect on crime.

Keywords

racial profiling, proactive policing, bicycle stops

1

Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

2

Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

3

Department of Statistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ojmarrh Mitchell, Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, SOC

107, Tampa, FL 33602, USA.

Email: omitchell@usf.edu

Police Quarterly

2018, Vol. 21(4) 461–485

!The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1098611118781344

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Introduction

Proactive policing often provokes the tensions described in Packer’s (1964) two

models of criminal justice. Consistent with Packer’s crime control model, pro-

active policing strategies typically aimed at various forms of low-level criminal

activity (e.g., traffic infractions, loitering, smoking marijuana in public, turnstile

jumping, misdemeanor offenses generally) have been empirically demonstrated

to reduce criminal activity in some contexts (see, e.g., Braga & Bond, 2008;

Corman & Mocan, 2005; Kubrin, Messner, Deane, McGeever, & Stucky,

2010; J. M. MacDonald, 2002; Messner et al., 2007). On the other hand,

proactive policing potentially undermine the values expressed in Packer’s due

process model of criminal justice, as such tactics run a substantial risk of infring-

ing upon citizens’ civil rights, particularly the rights of minority citizens who

proactive policing practices disproportionately affect (Glaser, 2014; Harris,

2003; D. M. Kennedy, 2011; R. Kennedy, 1997). In fact, a frequent criticism

of proactive policing is that such practices racially profile minorities by using

race or ethnicity as a marker of suspicion or by concentrating proactive police

activities in minority communities, which in turn leads to minorities having

higher rates of contact with the police.

The current research investigates both the fairness and effectiveness of a

proactive policing practice utilized by the Tampa Police Department (TPD).

The proactive strategy of interest is TPD’s practice of making large numbers

of bicycle stops for minor infractions, particularly in high-crime neighborhoods.

A 2015 Tampa Bay Times (TBT ) article exposed the practice, noting an unusu-

ally large number of bicycle stops TPD officers made in comparison to other

police agencies in Florida and the stark racial disparities in these stops (Zayas &

Stanley, 2015). TPD’s then Chief of Police Jane Castor responded to the story

by stating that the practice of stopping bicyclists for traffic infractions is a part

of TPD’s proactive strategies to suppress crime in the city in high-crime areas,

reduce bicycle accidents, and reduce bicycle theft (Castor, 2015). To help quell

the controversy generated by the TBT article, Chief Castor and Tampa’s Mayor,

Bob Buckhorn, requested the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice,

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) to assess

racial disparities in bicycle stops and the reason for those disparities.

This research describes the methods we used to assess the fairness and effec-

tiveness of bicycle stops in Tampa and presents the key findings. The current

research expands the knowledge base by assessing allegations of racial profiling

in bicycle stops, which generates new issues not present in the existing empirical

literature that has tended to focus on traffic and pedestrian stops. Notably,

racial disparities and allegations of racial profiling in bicycle stops are not iso-

lated to Tampa, similar allegations have recently emerged in Chicago and New

York City (Wisniewski, 2017).

1

This research also extends the existing knowl-

edge base by examining the effectiveness of bicycle stops on crime by using a

462 Police Quarterly 21(4)