Disparity and Racial Profiling in Traffic Enforcement

• Published date: 01 March 2004
• Date: 01 March 2004
• DOI: 10.1177/1098611102250359
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

ARTICLE
10.1177/1098611102250359 POLICE QUAR
Novak / TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT DISP TERLY (Vol. 7, No. 1, March
ARITY & PROFILING
2004)
DISPARITY AND RACIAL PROFILING
IN TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT
KENNETH J. NOVAK
University of Missouri–Kansas City
Although prior research on racial profiling has consistently reported that
minorities are overrepresented among traffic stops compared with the popu-
lation, published research has been exclusively conducted in either large
police departments or state highway patrols. Using research from a subur-
ban police department, this study finds that although the police stop a dispro-
portionate number of minorities, the relationship between race and the deci-
sion to stop is very weak. Multivariate models indicate minorities stopped by
the police are more likely to be stopped at night and to reside outside the city.
Minorities are significantly less likely to receive formal sanction than major-
ities, suggesting officers are using traffic violations for pretextual stops.
Keywords: racial profiling; police; traffic enforcement
An emerging controversial topic in American policing is the issue of racial
profiling. Perhaps no other subject has recently stimulated such passionate
debate among citizens, police administrators, policy makers, and legislators
at all levels of government. On one hand, people who have felt they have
been the subject of police encounters due to their race and ethnicity have
supplied testimonial evidence (Gallup Organization, 1999; Harris, 1999a).
This has led many to conclude this prejudicial police practice not only is
widespread but also must be eliminated immediately. The result has been an
Funding for this work was provided by the Overland Park, Kansas, Police Department. The author
wishes to thank Chief John Douglass for his invaluable assistance and guidance as well as James Frank,
Lisa Growlette Bostaph, Alex Holsinger, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier
drafts. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kenneth J. Novak, 5100 Rockhill
Rd., 208 Haag Hall, Kansas City, MO 64110; phone: 816-235-1599; e-mail: novakk@umkc.edu.
POLICE QUARTERLY Vol. 7 No. 1, March 2004 65–96
DOI: 10.1177/1098611102250359
© 2004 Sage Publications

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POLICE QUARTERLY (Vol. 7, No. 1, March 2004)
onslaught of civil lawsuits, legislatively or court-ordered data collection
efforts, and voluntary data collection efforts on the part of police to explore
for racially biased practices. On the other hand, police officers and police
administrators have indicated these testimonials and the supporting data are
inaccurate or at least not representative of officers or police organizations
nationally. Police officers have suggested disproportionate contacts
between officers and citizens may be an unanticipated byproduct of the war
on drugs, the get-tough-on-crime movement, zero-tolerance policing, or
perhaps efficient operational policies. What remains largely unknown is
how widespread this practice is and what could be done to eliminate the
problem.
In response to public outcry, recent research on racial profiling has been
extensive. Most research has found, to varying degrees, that police dispro-
portionately stop people of color for traffic violations relative to population
composition1 and treat minorities differently than Whites during the
encounters (e.g., citations, arrests, length of time persons are stopped, and
searches of persons and their possessions). However, to date, examinations
of racial profiling have focused exclusively on officer behavior in large city
police departments or state-level police, ignoring either smaller jurisdic-
tions or suburban jurisdictions. This research fills this void.
This study examines police-citizen encounters during traffic stops by the
Overland Park Police Department (OPPD) in Overland Park, Kansas. The
city the department serves is a large, middle-class, overwhelmingly White
suburb located in the Kansas City standard metropolitan statistical area
(SMSA). Due to the demographic makeup of the city (to be described in
detail later), the police department is uniquely susceptible to allegations of
racial profiling. Moreover, few examinations of racial profiling have used
multivariate models to predict different dispositions or characteristics of
police-citizen contact.
This article first provides a brief overview of racial profiling and the
influence of race during police-citizen encounters, possible sources of
racial profiling, and prior research and its limitations. Second, this article
fully describes the research site and data collection efforts. Third, using data
collected during a 4-month period, this study examines whether minorities
are significantly more likely than Whites to be stopped by police officers,
whether the factors surrounding the encounters differ based on the race of
the citizens, and whether race is a significant factor predicting the disposi-
tion of the stop (such as arrest or citation). Finally, this article discusses the

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67
results of the multivariate estimates and conclusions to be drawn from the
results.
SOURCES AND BACKGROUND OF RACIAL PROFILING
It is first important to adequately define what is meant by the term racial
profiling. The General Accounting Office (2000) characterized it as an in-
stance when police use race as a key factor in deciding whether to initiate a
traffic stop. Similarly, Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell (2000) defined it as
police-initiated actions that relies [sic ] on the race, ethnicity or national origin rather
than the behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular
individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal ac-
tivity. (p. 3)
In other words, racial profiling is when race is used as the sole (or primary)
factor influencing officers’discretionary activities. There are two key com-
ponents of this working definition. First, encounters must be police initiated
or proactive. Officers often have great discretion to choose with whom they
interact or encounter, but other times, the decisions are beyond their control.
Obvious examples of encounters beyond officers’ control are calls for ser-
vice, responding to the scene of an accident, or stopping someone because
they (or their vehicles) fit the description of a person wanted for a criminal
offense. To discover bias in decision making, it is important to only examine
officer-initiated encounters.
The second component of this definition is that police officers must use
citizen race and not citizen behavior as a key factor that influences their
decisions. Research consistently shows racial and ethnic minorities are
overrepresented throughout the criminal justice system (Walker, Spohn, &
DeLone, 1996). Yet, explaining this overrepresentation proves exceedingly
difficult. Empirical examinations of police behavior have demonstrated that
characteristics associated with the situation more consistently influenced
officer behavior than did race (Riksheim & Chermak, 1993). Important fac-
tors include seriousness of the offense, evidence the person committed a
crime, victim or witness preference, and demeanor of the citizen. If factors
other than race have greater explanatory value in determining the activities
of officers, the claim that officers are engaging in racial profiling becomes
weak. Race and other extra-legal characteristics must offer greater explana-
tory value only after controlling for legally relevant factors.

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POSSIBLE SOURCES OF DISPARITY
Racial disparity within the criminal justice system is by no means a new
topic. Extant literature has consistently demonstrated that minorities are
overrepresented at various stages of the criminal justice system (Kennedy,
1997). Although a complete review of the sources of racial profiling is
beyond the parameters of this study, it is important to outline several possi-
ble explanations. The issue of racial profiling is relatively new, although
police officers have consistently encountered minorities disproportionately
compared with the population. Tomaskovic-Devey (2001) and Fridell,
Lunney, Diamond, and Kubu (2001) offered several plausible explanations
for the phenomena. First, bigoted, racist officers may differentially target
minorities. Walker et al. (1996) referred to this as individual acts of discrim-
ination. Although it may be enticing to subscribe to this “bad apple” expla-
nation, this rationale alone inadequately explains the systematic disparate
processing within the criminal justice system. Officers’attitudes have con-
sistently demonstrated to have very little influence on behavior (Worden,
1989), and individual discrimination, although it may certainly exist, would
not reasonably explain the vast disparity in criminal justice processing.
Second, there may be a cognitive stereotyping on the part of the officers
or contextual discrimination for drug offenses. This is based on the premise
that minorities are more likely than others to be involved in drug offenses.
The consequence of America’s war on drugs is that minorities may be dif-
ferentially processed by the criminal justice system (Barnes & Kingsworth,
1996). One way to enact the war on drugs is to engage in pretextual traffic
stops in hopes of uncovering other, more serious secondary law violations.
Moreover, police...