Columbia traffic stops rise 21 percent

The number of traffic stops made by the Columbia Police Department rose 21 percent in the last year, and blacks continued to be more than twice as likely to be searched during a traffic stop as whites.

According to Attorney General Jay Nixon’s report on Missouri traffic stops, released Tuesday, whites were searched in 9 percent of traffic stops by Columbia police, whereas blacks were searched 23 percent of the time. These numbers come from the Police Department after it reported 2003 statistics for Columbia as 8 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

The statistics also showed that on average, all blacks age 16 and older had a 60 percent chance of being stopped for a violation and a 14 percent chance of being searched by police during a traffic stop last year. Whites, conversely, had a 24 percent chance of being stopped and only a 2 percent chance of being searched.

“The problem with those numbers is they do not take into consideration repeat searches made on single individuals throughout the course of the year, nor do they take into account stops made on non-Columbia residents,” said Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm. “Many of the crime issues in the central city take place with people who are not Columbia residents, which cannot be accounted for (in the numbers presented).”

Boehm also cites the addition of two full-time motorcycle patrolmen as a cause for the rise in the number of tickets issued.

According to Mary Ratliff, president of the NAACP in Missouri and Columbia, these factors do not justify the disproportionate statistics.

“I am disappointed that the traffic stops of African-Americans and Hispanics are still out of proportion,” Ratliff said. “I’ve seen a small change in the past years, but there is still a very large problem (with racial profiling).”

The areas in the central city that are most heavily patrolled and are the locations of the most stops by police are primarily in Beats 50 and 55, which are bounded on the south by Broadway and on the north by Business Loop 70. Beat 55 extends to Stadium Boulevard on the west. Beat 50 is bounded by College Avenue on the east. The two are separated by Garth Avenue.

“You can say that we have more calls for police service in the central city than we do in any other geographic area of Columbia, and because of that, we have more police officers assigned to the central city by far,” Boehm said. “When you have more calls for service, including drug activity, and more police officers in the area, there will be more traffic stops.”

Ratliff said a higher number of complaints did not justify what she sees as subtle racial profiling.

“There are people in and around Ward 1 (the area consisting mostly of Beats 50 and 55) that are stopped and searched just because they are there, because of the car they drive or whatever else,” Ratliff said.

Despite the disproportionate number of both stops and searches, searches of whites resulted in the discovery of contraband more often than did searches of blacks. Searches of whites during traffic stops resulted in the discovery of contraband of any kind 17 percent of the time, while searches of blacks recovered contraband in 15 percent of stops. However, blacks are twice as likely as whites to be arrested after a traffic stop, with a reported rate of 3.2 percent of stops resulting in arrests versus 1.6 percent for whites.

It is the policy of the Police Department to search any vehicle if its driver is arrested. According to Boehm, the higher number of blacks who are eventually arrested as a result of a traffic stop has a significant effect on the disproportion of searches of vehicles driven by blacks versus whites.

“I can understand that if a person were looking at numbers alone, they could have concerns,” Boehm said. “I would hope they would look deeper and see that there are other issues at work.”

Boehm said he does not approve of racial profiling by police officers.

“I’m not naive enough to say no officers racially profile, but every one of them knows that that is unacceptable, they will be disciplined, and it goes against everything we represent,” he said.

Ratliff said more must be done.

“In my opinion, racial profiling habits have barely changed at all,” she said. “Police continue to stop and search minorities without any justification.”

After statistics were released for 2003, Boehm said in May 2004 that the Police Department strives to maintain an open dialogue with the community. According to Boehm, the Police Department continues to work to keep open this dialogue.

“(The Police Department) tries to make sure (it) has officers attend neighborhood association meetings and community meetings whenever we are invited,” Boehm said.

According to the Rev. Ray Warren of the Douglass Coalition, police are trying to become positively involved in these areas, but a mixture of racial profiling and a lack of respect given to officers keeps these issues coming back to the surface.

“We know prejudices are alive and well in Columbia and elsewhere,” Warren said. “About 89 percent of the police force is white, and when they pull over a minority, they could easily look at them differently without even realizing it.”While he acknowledges the importance of recording and reporting these statistics, Boehm hesitates to jump to any conclusions based solely on numbers.“I don’t think any conclusions can be made from statistics alone,” Boehm said. “You must look at the individual officer’s reasoning each time.”

For Ratliff, any needed conclusions have been reached already. In her eyes, now the real progress must occur.

“Something has to happen so that there is some real change,” she said. “For now, nothing is changing.”