Local CBS affiliate WCCO reports the St. Anthony PD’s statistics on the racial composition of those they pull over indicates blacks are pulled over disproportionately:
At WCCO’s request, Orfield studied citations handed out by St. Anthony police in 2015 and 2016.
In 2015 about 15 percent were issued to black people. Roughly 60 percent went to white people. Those numbers are consistent so far in 2016.What troubles Orfield is the demographic for the area is about 6 percent black.
“It looked like they were stopping people about two and a half to three times as often as we thought what the driving population would be. It suggests that, consistent with our old studies, that there’s police profiling going on in those communities,” Orfield said.
In 2003, Orfield co-authored a report on racial profiling during traffic stops in Minnesota. It was requested by the legislature. While St. Anthony police did not participate, he says their current numbers mirror what he found in surrounding communities. That in Fridley, New Hope, Plymouth, Sauk Rapids and Savage combined, “Blacks were stopped about 310 percent more often than expected.”
I’ve been thinking about the context a little bit. I think there’s a superficial error in comparing the composition of the community to that of those pulled over because those who are pulled over, like Castile, are not necessarily members of St. Anthony, Falcon Heights, or Lauderdale (the St. Anthony PD service area). It’s probably superficial in that the composition is not too far off from the overall composition of the Twin Cities area, although I haven’t found a handy source for recent estimtaes.
Now, what does it mean? So far, I see that, statistically speaking, it increases the chance for a tragedy, which is always possible where guns are involved. Racial profiling may also be indicated. Still, the latter is an implication, not an overt (or proven) fact.
