By CHRIS BLANK
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.- Black motorists continue to be stopped by Missouri law officers at a disproportionate rate to others, and police are more likely to search or arrest minority drivers according to a state report released Friday.
The annual report released by the Missouri attorney general's office found black drivers were 72 percent more likely than white motorists - and 2.5 times more likely than Hispanic drivers - to be stopped by police in 2011. The statistics compare the racial breakdown of Missouri's driving-age population to the racial composition of drivers in about 1.7 million traffic stops made by 631 law enforcement agencies across the state.
Attorney General Chris Koster said the disparity in stops for black motorists has increased in 10 of the past 12 years. Missouri became the first state to publish a report examining racial demographics of traffic stops in 2001.
Koster, a Democrat, the disparity is a "significant concern" and a "disturbing trend." However, he said the findings do not prove that law enforcement officers are making vehicle stops based on the race or ethnicity of the driver.
"One of the best uses of these reports is as a springboard for dialogue and communication between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve," Koster said in a written analysis included with the report. "It is vital that Missouri law enforcement agencies continue to review the rates of stops and searches and to continue their outreach efforts."
Because the traffic stops report is based on various racial and ethnic groups' share of Missouri's population, it does not account for the effect of travel. For example, law officers say one reason for some apparent racial disparities is that some communities with a largely white population can have significant traffic from minority workers, visitors and shoppers. That could be particularly true in communities located along highways.
Along with looking at who is pulled over, the report examined when vehicles were searched and arrests were made.
There were 129,000 vehicle searches last year, and law officers made more than 81,000 arrests. In all, police searched about 7.8 percent of the vehicles they stopped, finding contraband about 23 percent of the time. An arrest was made in nearly 5 percent of traffic stops.
White motorists were less likely than black or Hispanic drivers to be arrested or have their vehicles searched. Yet, law officers found contraband in nearly one-quarter of the searches of white motorists' vehicles compared to 18 percent of the time for blacks and less than 14 percent of the time for Hispanics.
Black motorists were arrested 8 percent of the time, and Hispanics were arrested nearly 9 percent of the time, while white drivers were arrested at a clip of a little more than 4 percent.
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Online:
Traffic stops report: http://ago.mo.gov/VehicleStops/