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A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL Tickets to fix
7/23/2003
The Globe study raises the possibility not only of racial bias but so-called depolicing, a tendency by some officers to respond less actively to certain people or situations. It may seem harmless when an officer applies a ''hometown advantage'' to a local speeder in the form of a written warning. But the credibility of the entire department is undermined when outsiders are ticketed for a similar or lesser offense. And public trust in the police collapses when race or gender determines the outcome of the interaction. Citing additional paperwork and even difficulties in determining a driver's ethnicity, some police officials resisted the 2000 state law that requires officers to record the race of motorists during traffic stops. But persistent complaints of racial profiling make clear that comprehensive data are needed to ensure fairness. And Massachusetts has far to go in the area of data collection. All confirmed speeders, by definition, deserve tickets. Yet many drivers, especially younger white women, escape with just a warning. The collection and examination of those warnings are key to ensuring equal enforcement. Centralized data, however, are available only for April, May, and part of June 2001, when the Registry of Motor Vehicles had the will and money to record the information. An estimated 1.5 million unanalyzed warning notices issued since the passage of the racial profiling law sit in a Randolph warehouse. Even if a supplemental budget appropriation is required, that data -- or at least a reliable sample -- should be collated. State law demands that police departments found to engage in racial profiling be subject to even stricter data collection. But these departments are hard to identify because profiling practices remain hidden away in unexamined files. Police supervisors should not sit idle awaiting automated assistance from the state. In Boston, where the Globe found sharp disparities in ticketing based on race, police officials are expanding data collection to include all encounters with the public, not just traffic stops. The state's Division of Insurance should also examine future findings. The Globe study estimated that minority drivers pay $6.4 million extra in fines and insurance premiums over the course of a year. Scofflaws should pay higher premiums. But the current system corrupts the pool. Evenhandedness is never too much to ask of a police officer. The Massachusetts State Police appear to conduct their traffic enforcement duties without favoritism or bias, according to the Globe study. Secretary of Public Safety Edward Flynn should use the State Police statistics as a base line when evaluating other departments. Simple fairness is not an unattainable goal.
This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 7/23/2003.
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FFICER DISCRETION will always be a major part of police work. But the judgments of police officers are not infallible and demand the strictest scrutiny when they result in significant disparities in traffic enforcement based on the race of drivers. A three-part Globe series that concluded yesterday provides insights on the most common but underanalyzed interaction between police and the public: traffic stops. State records reveal that whites in Massachusetts are less likely to receive tickets than minorities when pulled over by local police for identical offenses. During a two-month period in 2001, 31 percent of white motorists received tickets for speeding at 45 m.p.h in a 30-m.p.h zone, a common offense. Yet 49 percent of minorities received tickets for the same violation. This is unacceptable.
