What did racial and identity profiling look like in California during its last study?

Pedestrian and vehicle stops were down in 2020, but people who were Black or perceived to be Black were stopped at nearly 2 1/2 times than those who were white and had force used on them at more than 2 1/2 times the rate of their white counterparts, according to a report the California Department of Justice released on Friday.

Those perceived to have mental health disability didn’t fare much better; officers used force against them at more than five times the rate of those perceived not to have one.

Those findings were two of many released by the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, which analyzes the topic. The report analyzes all of the pedestrian and vehicle stops conducted by 18 law enforcement agencies in the state, including its biggest 15.

The San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco police departments were the only Bay Area departments that were part of the 18. The other police departments whose stops were analyzed included: Sacramento, Davis, Los Angeles (and its Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department), Bakersfield, Fresno, Long Beach and San Diego.

Sheriff offices in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties also participated, according to the report. The California Highway Patrol added its information, too.

State officials said the 2020 report marks the second year that RIPA data has been generated.

Among the key findings, according to the report:

• The agencies combined for about 2.9 million vehicle stops, a 26.5% reduction to its 2019 total. Yet people who were Black or perceived to be Black were searched at 2.4 times the rate of those perceived to be white. Transgender women also were searched at 2.5 times the rate of cisgender women.
• Officers used force against Black people or those perceived to be Black at 2.6 times the rate they used force against white people, and they used force against those perceived to have a mental health handicap at 5.2 times the rate of those they perceived not to have one.
• A higher proportion of traffic violation stops involving people perceived as Black or Hispanic were for non-moving or equipment violations. As just one example, the number of stops initiated for window obstruction violations was nearly 2.5 times higher for people perceived as Hispanic and 1.9 times higher for those perceived as Black.
• At the conclusion of the traffic or pedestrian stops, officers reported “no action taken” 2.3 times as often as they did for white individuals, indicating that a higher rate of those stopped who were perceived as Black weren’t engaging in criminal activity. Officers can take no action, or they can issue a warning or citation during these stops.
• Based on data from the 2019 American Community Survey, people perceived to be Black were overrepresented in the stop data by 10 percentage points, and people perceived as White or Asian were underrepresented by three and nine percentage points, respectively, when compared with weighted residential populations.

Officials from local police agencies were not available immediately to comment.

The agency encouraged members of the public to review the data online on https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/exploration/stop-data.

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