How Can Discretionary Traffic Stops Drive Racial Disparities?
Traffic stops are common and consequential for how police and communities interact; they also impact racial gaps in police-community trust. New research from Co-Director Jennifer Eberhardt, Faculty Affiliates Nick Camp, Benoit Monîn, and Dan Jurafsky, and Professional Research Affiliates Vinod Prabhakaran and Rebecca Hetey explores the impact of discretionary police stops on racial disparities and public perceptions of law enforcement. Discretionary police stops are those made when an officer has more discretion or choice over whether to make the stop, like for broken lights. Using data from millions of traffic stops and community evaluations of recorded stops, they find that Black (vs. White) drivers are more likely to be stopped for discretionary reasons, and that Black (vs. White) community members view these stops more negatively. Then, when a police department they studied issued a directive to limit these types of stops, racial disparities in discretionary stops were reduced. These findings show the importance of both officer decision-making and the role of organizational policies in shaping those judgments and their outcomes.
