Recently released statistics by the Columbia Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff’s office reinforce what some say is an all-too familiar picture: Black drivers were more likely to be pulled over and searched than their white counterparts.
The new data from Columbia police showed that out of the 3,162 black drivers that were stopped by Columbia police in 2006, 21 percent were subsequently searched. That’s compared to 7 percent of 10,783 white drivers who were pulled over and searched.
The Boone County's Sheriff's Department reported that 16 percent of traffic stops involved black people. That's up from 2005, when blacks made up 13 percent of traffic stops.
Maj. Tom Reddin, of the Sheriff’s Department, said that after seeing the increase in black drivers who were stopped, he sat down with Sheriff Dwayne Carey and a traffic unit supervisor to take a closer look.
“We wanted to know why we had an increase,” Reddin said. “What we discovered is that we do not have a deputy or deputies that are targeting black people or minorities.”
He said areas such as Fairway Meadows, Prathersville, Gregory Heights and Rock Bridge Estates receive “high calls for service.” But he said that such neighborhoods around the county may “have a somewhat larger ratio of African-American to whites and other ethnic groups.”
To Edith Prinze, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Boone County, the fact that 21 percent of blacks stopped were searched by the Columbia police — but make up only 9 percent of Columbia’s population, according to census data — is evidence of racial profiling.
“That is more than double the amount of blacks that make up Columbia,” Prinze said.
Reddin said that comparing to census data can be misleading because certain neighborhoods have a black population above 9 percent.
“The only thing I can tell you about that is that each traffic stop has to be looked at in its own dynamic,” he said. “What we are stopping people for is a violation of their vehicle, not their skin color.”