Vermont State Police searched black and Hispanic drivers more than twice as often as white motorists during 2018 traffic stops.
While the new data released by the state police Monday shows a distinct disparity between how often drivers from different racial groups are pulled over by law enforcement, the gap is closing.
Out of the 53,436 traffic stops of white drivers, state troopers conducted searches 0.6% of the time. The search rate for black drivers is more than double that, at 1.63%, in spite of only stopping 1,533 black motorists.
State police reported 767 total stops of Hispanic drivers — who were searched 1.96% of the time — the highest search rate rate among ethnic groups. Asians had the lowest search rate in 2018 at 0.41%, out of 1,207 traffic stops.
Black drivers were also more likely to be arrested by state police for a motor vehicle violation than white drivers and other minority groups in the state.
State police say more work needs to be done to close the enforcement gap between racial groups. VTDigger file photo
Black drivers were arrested for a motor vehicle violation 3% of the time, white drivers were arrested 2.56% of the time, Hispanic drivers were arrested at a rate of 2.22%, Asian drivers got arrested 1.24% of the time. No Native American drivers, who made a small fraction of total traffic stops, were arrested.
In the last four years, since the state police began to make traffic stop data public, the disparity between searching white and minority drivers has fallen, but law enforcement and advocates agree more work has to be done to close the gap.
“I think overall we are pleased to see these trends coming down,” said Capt. Garry Scott, the director of fair and impartial policing at Vermont State Police. “If we had a true utopia we would be seeing a crisscross and white drivers would be more searched than black motorists. That is what we would like to see happen.”
The 2018 enforcement disparity is a far cry from what was reported in a study of traffic stops by state police between 2010-2015.
ACLU Vermont staff attorney Jay Diaz. Photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
In that report, black drivers were searched 4.6% of the time over those five years. White drivers, though constituting more than 95% of of traffic stops, were only searched 1% of the time. Hispanic drivers also had a high search rate of 4%.
In 2016, state police reported that the search rate had come down for all groups, but still found a large disparity between white drivers and minority groups.
According to the 2016 traffic stop data, white drivers were searched at a rate of 0.9% of the time, compared to black drivers who were searched 2.58% of the time, while Hispanic drivers were searched at a rate of 1.94%.
The rate fell again in 2017, according to state police data. That year, state police conducted searches on white drivers 0.79% of the time; black drivers 2.15% of the time, Hispanic drivers 1.42% and Asian drivers would be the least searched at 0.21%.
Jay Diaz, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, said the disparities between white and minority drivers in the 2018 traffic stop data is in line with past year’s numbers and what the ACLU is seeing statewide.
“This is also consistent with what we hear from people of color, our clients, who regularly report feeling discriminated against in police interactions and discriminated against in different parts of the criminal justice system,” Diaz said.
Scott said he is deeply concerned by the disparity in searches and arrests between white and minority motorists.
Bor Yang, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, testifies at the Statehouse on March 13. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
On Wednesday, Scott will be meeting with Bor Yang, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, to discuss the traffic stop data in detail. Yang declined to comment on the data until she had spoken with Scott.
Scott said police are actively trying to combat implicit bias around race by recruiting outside of Vermont trying to attract a more diverse workforce.
“It’s sort of this total culture we are trying to go through,” Scott said of the state police. “There is still a lot of work to be done and we are not satisfied.”
Part of Scott’s plan to change the culture of the state police includes the fair and impartial policing policy, which has been a mandatory part of training since 2017.
The law mandating the training was just updated and clarified this legislative session. Gov. Phil Scott signed the new language into statute.
The training policy has been criticized by the ACLU and other advocates, including the Human Rights Commission, for not going far enough to mandate the training for how law enforcement in Vermont should interact with minority groups.
“A policy is only as good as the training and supervision that goes with it,” Diaz said. “We recognize that the Vermont State Police has done training and data collection and has said they have made efforts to inform troopers about data but it is troubling to see these disparities continue.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Black and Hispanic drivers searched at twice rate of white drivers, but gap closing.