by Brian Bergstein, Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - San Jose police, among the first in the nation to compile traffic stop statistics by race, said Friday their latest numbers confirm that officers do not engage in racial profiling.
But police also acknowledged that the numbers don’t tell a complete story, and pledged to start tallying which motorists are searched when pulled over - a promise praised by civil libertarians.
The racial breakdown of motorists stopped in the city in 2001 was almost identical to figures from 2000.
Of all stops, 41 percent involved Hispanics; 31 percent whites; 16 percent Asians; and 7 percent blacks. By comparison, 30 percent of San Jose’s 900,000 residents were Hispanic; 36 percent were white; 27 percent were Asian; and 3 percent were black.
Police said disparities between traffic stop numbers and overall population figures arise because officers have a heavier presence in higher-crime neighborhoods, which often have more minority residents.
“All indications are that San Jose police officers are making vehicle stops based upon the requisite probable cause,” according to the report released Friday by Chief William Landsdowne.
In hopes of getting a more complete picture of how officers treat motorists of different races, the department will on Sunday begin tracking whether someone gets searched after a stop.
Many cities nationwide already collect search information, said Mark Schlosberg, Northern California director of police practices policy for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This kind of data is very important so we can really measure how is somebody treated after they are stopped, so we can dispel the myth that you’re more likely to find contraband by searching people of color,” he said.
Schlosberg said the statistics released Friday were not sufficient to support any conclusions about whether racial profiling is a problem in San Jose, the nation’s 11th-largest city.