Another Report of Blacks Being Stopped by Police

Attorney General Chris Koster today released the 11th Annual Report on Vehicle Stops. The 2010 report contains analysis on more than 1.6 million stops by 630 law enforcement agencies, including racial and ethnic information about drivers who were stopped.

Koster said Missourians can visit his website at www.ago.mo.gov to compare the 2010 report to vehicle stops data going back to 2000, when data collection was first required by Missouri law.

"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. "It is vital that Missouri law enforcement agencies continue to review the rates of stops and searches and to continue their outreach efforts."

The Attorney General reiterated that the disparity index for any community is not conclusive evidence of racial profiling. The "disparity indexes" compare the proportion of stops for drivers of a particular race or ethnicity to the proportion of state or local population of that racial or ethnic group. A value of "1" represents no disparity; values over "1" indicate over-representation, while values under "1" indicate under-representation.

Koster said in 2010 the statewide African-American disparity index was 1.61, down slightly from the 2009 rate of 1.62. This is the second time since data collection began that the disparity index for African-American drivers has decreased - the other being a decrease from 1.36 in 2003 to 1.34 in 2004.

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,” he said in a statement.

A Democrat who represents a large number of African-Americans in the east side of Kansas City, Sen. Kiki Curls, told a Kansas City newspaper that for a long while she has heard concerns that defend the findings in the report.

Missouri is not alone in the disparity of Blacks being pulled over more frequently than other races however. A few weeks ago a report out of Houston stated that Blacks in the city were stopped by police vehicles more than any other racial ethnic group in 2010. They were 33 percent of all people stopped by the Houston police, but only made up 23 percent of the city’s population.