Pennsylvania troopers stop drivers at similar rates no matter their race or ethnicity, study finds

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania — Last year, Pennsylvania drivers were stopped and ticketed by state police at about the same rate regardless of race or ethnicity, according to information on 450,000 stops made public Wednesday.

“The findings from multiple analyses showed no substantial racial and ethnic differences in the initial reason for the stop by the Pennsylvania State Police,” said Robin Engel, a researcher now at Ohio State University, in publishing the $194,000 study from the state police academy in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Researchers also found that officers’ decisions about how to enforce the law after stopping someone are based primarily on legal factors, rather than the race or ethnicity of the driver or officer.

However, officers in the field were slightly more likely to conduct “discretionary” searches of the vehicles of black drivers than of white or Hispanic drivers, when the drivers’ criminal histories were taken into account. the report said.

Officers do not ask drivers about their race or ethnicity, but record that information based on their subjective perceptions.

The Pennsylvania state police and the American Civil Liberties Union agreed two years ago to settle a federal civil rights complaint alleging that seven officers targeted Hispanic drivers for vehicle stops and pulled them over to check their immigration status. The 10 people who filed the lawsuit, all Hispanic, said officers demanded “papers” from drivers and passengers.

To settle the case, the Pennsylvania State Police enacted a law regulation prohibiting officers from stopping people based on their immigration status, citizenship, or nationality, and prohibiting them from questioning people about their immigration status unless the answers are needed for a criminal investigation unrelated to civil immigration laws.

The new report on traffic stops echoed last year’s findings that racial and ethnic disparities in Pennsylvania State Police traffic stops have become rare, likely because of increased enforcement and supervision in the field. Authorities have also changed training strategies and prioritized treating people equally.

In an effort to make their work more transparent, the state police have also expanded their use of body cameras, with nearly half of the force now equipped to wear them.

More information about traffic stops in Pennsylvania may be available soon. law passed by the legislature in May directs other local police departments serving at least 5,000 residents must also collect and make public data on traffic checksThe measure will come into effect at the end of next year.

Rep. Napoleon Nelson, D-Montgomery, chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, called the newly released data “neither reassuring nor extremely surprising.” He said the study will be carefully reviewed and that information from smaller departments is needed to form a full picture.

“We don’t know the regional differences in statistical analyses yet, we haven’t seen that yet,” Nelson said. “There’s still a lot we don’t know.”

A study of nearly 4.6 million vehicle and pedestrian stops by 535 law enforcement agencies in California in 2022 found that Black people lost control of their vehicles and pedestrians nearly 4.6 million times. 13% of traffic checks in that state, where they make up about 5% of the total population. A 2022 study in Massachusetts found no evidence of racial inequality in deciding to pull over drivers, but Hispanic and black drivers were more likely to receive a ticket than white drivers, and white drivers were more likely to get off with just a warning.

In Missouri, a 2018 study concluded African American drivers were 85% more likely to be pulled over than whites, and that white drivers were less likely to be frisked than blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, but were more likely to be caught with contraband. The report also found that 7.1 percent of Hispanics and 6.6 percent of blacks were arrested after stops, compared to 4.2 percent of whites.