Racial profiling

From "Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion" Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times, August 24, 2005.

Lawrence Greenfield, head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, was recently demoted after a dispute over a study of racial profiling.

The flashpoint in the tensions between Mr. Greenfeld and his political supervisors came four months ago, when statisticians at the agency were preparing to announce the results of a major study on traffic stops and racial profiling, which found disparities in how racial groups were treated once they were stopped by the police.

Political supervisors within the Office of Justice Programs ordered Mr. Greenfeld to delete certain references to the disparities from a news release that was drafted to announce the findings, according to more than a half-dozen Justice Department officials with knowledge of the situation. The officials, most of whom said they were supporters of Mr. Greenfeld, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

What exactly, was in this report?

The April study by the Justice Department, based on interviews with 80,000 people in 2002, found that white, black and Hispanic drivers nationwide were stopped by the police that year at about the same rate, roughly 9 percent. But, in findings that were more detailed than past studies on the topic, the Justice Department report also found that what happened once the police made a stop differed markedly depending on race and ethnicity.

Once they were stopped, Hispanic drivers were searched or had their vehicles searched by the police 11.4 percent of the time and blacks 10.2 percent of the time, compared with 3.5 percent for white drivers. Blacks and Hispanics were also subjected to force or the threat of force more often than whites, and the police were much more likely to issue tickets to Hispanics rather than simply giving them a warning, the study found.

It's worth noting that the dispute was about the press release and not about the report itself. The full report is out on the web, at

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cpp02.pdf

The statistics described in the New York Times article appear in Table 9.

Critics of the Bush administration have accused them of burying the report, but if that was the intent, the publicity has only amplified the attention that this report has received. They also cite this report as evidence that the Bush administration punishes those who publicize bad news.

There has always been concern about the independence of statistical estimates produced by U.S. Federal Agencies. If an administration could manipulate estimates of inflation and/or unemployment, then no one would trust those figures anymore.

On the other hand, politicians have always worried about unelected career government employees who may not be responsive or may even be openly hostile towards the goals of the to the elected President of the United States. Mr. Greenfield seems to appreciate the two sides of this issue in some quotes from him in the New York Times article.

Mr. Greenfeld declined to discuss the handling of the traffic report or his departure from the statistics agency. But he emphasized in an interview that his agency's data had never been changed because of political pressure and added that "all our statistics are produced under the highest quality standards."

As a political appointee named to his post by Mr. Bush in 2001, "I serve at the pleasure of the president and can be replaced at any time," Mr. Greenfeld said. "There's always a natural and healthy tension between the people who make the policy and the people who do the statistics. That's there every day of the week, because some days you're going to have good news, and some days you're going to have bad news."

This article has received a lot of coverage in the more liberal blogs. Run a web search on "blog Lawrence Greenfield racial profiling" to see some examples.

Bob Herbert, a writer on the editorial pages of the New York Times also commented on the racial profiling article on August 25. He offered his opinions, and then shared the following two anecdotes.

Rachel Ellen Ondersma was a 17-year-old high school senior when she was stopped by the police in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Nov. 14, 1998. She had been driving erratically, the police said, and when she failed a Breathalyzer test, she was placed under arrest.

An officer cuffed Ms. Ondersma's hands behind her and left her alone in the back seat of a police cruiser. What happened after that was captured on a video camera mounted inside the vehicle. And while it would eventually be shown on the Fox television program "World's Wackiest Police Videos," it was not funny.

The camera offered a clear view through the cruiser's windshield. The microphone picked up the sound of Ms. Ondersma sobbing, then the clink of the handcuffs as she began maneuvering to free herself. She apparently stepped through her arms so her hands, still cuffed, were in front of her. Then she climbed into the front seat, started the engine and roared off. With the car hurtling along, tires squealing, Ms. Ondersma could be heard moaning, "What am I doing?" and, "They are going to have to kill me."

She roared onto a freeway, where she was clocked by pursuing officers at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. She crashed into a concrete barrier, and officers, thinking they had her boxed in, jumped out of their vehicles. But Ms. Ondersma backed up, then lurched forward and plowed into one of the police cars.

Gunfire could be heard as the police began shooting out her tires. The teenager backed up, lurched forward and crashed into the cop car again. An officer had to leap out of the way to keep from being struck.

Ms. Ondersma tried to speed away once more, but by then at least two of her tires were flat and she could no longer control the vehicle. She crashed into another concrete divider and was finally surrounded.

As I watched the videotape, I was amazed at the way she was treated when she was pulled from the cruiser. The police did not seem particularly upset. They were not rough with her, and no one could be heard cursing. One officer said: "Calm down, all right? I think you've caused enough trouble for one day."

This is in contrast to a second incident in April 1998 where four young men in a van were pulled over.

They were neither drunk nor abusive. But their van did roll slowly backward, accidentally bumping the leg of one of the troopers and striking the police vehicle.

The troopers drew their weapons and opened fire. When the shooting stopped, three of the four young men had been shot and seriously wounded.

The woman in the first incident was white. In the second incident, three of the men were black and one was Hispanic.

Discussion questions:

(1) Do statisticians in the various U.S. Government Agencies need greater independence to protect them from political influences? If so, how could this be best achieved?

(2) Read the full report on racial profiling. What are the limitations to this study? How serious are the limitations?

(3) Do you find Mr. Herbert's two anecdotes to be more persuasive than the statistics on racial profiling?