A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States

Emma Pierson, Camelia Simoiu, Jan Overgoor, Sam Corbett-Davies, Daniel Jenson, Amy Shoemaker, Vignesh Ramachandran, Phoebe Barghouty, Cheryl Phillips, Ravi Shroff and Sharad Goel ()
Additional contact information
Emma Pierson: Stanford University
Camelia Simoiu: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Jan Overgoor: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Sam Corbett-Davies: Stanford University
Daniel Jenson: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Amy Shoemaker: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Vignesh Ramachandran: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Phoebe Barghouty: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Cheryl Phillips: Communication, Stanford University
Ravi Shroff: Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities, New York University
Sharad Goel: Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2020, vol. 4, issue 7, 736-745

Abstract: Abstract We assessed racial disparities in policing in the United States by compiling and analysing a dataset detailing nearly 100 million traffic stops conducted across the country. We found that black drivers were less likely to be stopped after sunset, when a ‘veil of darkness’ masks one’s race, suggesting bias in stop decisions. Furthermore, by examining the rate at which stopped drivers were searched and the likelihood that searches turned up contraband, we found evidence that the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was lower than that for searching white drivers. Finally, we found that legalization of recreational marijuana reduced the number of searches of white, black and Hispanic drivers—but the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was still lower than that for white drivers post-legalization. Our results indicate that police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias and point to the value of policy interventions to mitigate these disparities.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0858-1

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