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| L |
| Driving While Black |
Peter Moskos is
assistant professor of
Law, Police Science,
and Criminal Justice
Administration at the
City University of New
York's John Jay
College of Criminal
Justice. He specializes
in a sociological
approach to police
culture, police patrol
and crime prevention,
drug violence,
community policing
and terrorism,
police/minority
relations, and
qualitative methods.
He is a former
Baltimore City police
officer.
assistant professor of
Law, Police Science,
and Criminal Justice
Administration at the
City University of New
York's John Jay
College of Criminal
Justice. He specializes
in a sociological
approach to police
culture, police patrol
and crime prevention,
drug violence,
community policing
and terrorism,
police/minority
relations, and
qualitative methods.
He is a former
Baltimore City police
officer.
RESPONDING to concerns that officers were engaging in racial profiling, the
Suffolk County police recently began recording the race of stopped drivers. The
police officer in me is suspicious of any effort to quantify a job that is — or
at least should be — qualitative. But the professor in me loves police data on race.
While some might question the logic of police officers gathering racial data in order
to disprove racial profiling, the practice is hardly revolutionary. Nassau County
police officers have been quietly recording similar data on stopped drivers for
more than two years. But simply knowing the race of stopped drivers is virtually
meaningless; the data will neither placate critics nor reflect well on what is
generally a good police department.
It's no secret among minorities that police officers use race on the job. According
to a 1999 Gallup poll, 42 percent of African-Americans believe they've been
stopped by the police solely because of race. Race matters in America, and until
it doesn't, it would be foolish, perhaps impossible, for police officers or anybody
else to completely ignore it. The issue isn't that police officers observe race; it's
how they act on this information.
When I was a police officer in Baltimore, probably 90 percent of the drivers I pulled
over were black. Did I profile? Race was certainly one factor on my mind. But
statistics don't begin to tell the story. In my part of Baltimore, 99 percent of
the residents were African-American. I was very suspicious of whites driving slowly
around drug corners in the neighborhood at 3 a.m. Some might say I profiled white
people. I call it good policing based on professional experience and local
knowledge.
Any policy that casts a blanket assumption of guilt on all police officers will not only
have a devastating effect on morale, it will also change their behavior for the
worse. There's an old police cliché, troubling but true, that if you don't do any
work you can't get in trouble. As for racist officers, they can just fudge the data.
Really, who's going to check?
Counterintuitively, officers who have to defend their professional discretion against
accusations of racial bias are more likely to ticket and arrest those they stop.
Giving a poor person a verbal warning rather than an expensive fine can be
both humane and effective policing. But it's no defense against an accusation of a
racially biased stop. Tickets and lock-ups serve as proof of the probable cause
needed for a legal stop.
Eight percent of Suffolk County and nearly 18 percent of New York State is black.
Just what is the ''correct'' percentage of black drivers in Suffolk County for the
police to stop? Traffic stops shouldn't reflect census data or even road use.
Traffic stops, like arrests, should reflect the demographic characteristics of
offenders.
New Jersey provides a good warning lesson. Even though the average black driver
doesn't drive any differently than the average white driver, New Jersey troopers
were well known for stopping blacks disproportionately. Was this profiling?
Maybe, but New Jersey troopers weren't stopping average drivers. They were
stopping those driving the fastest.
Eventually, a few academics noted the race of drivers speeding down the New
Jersey Turnpike. It turned out that blacks — especially young black males — were
more likely than whites to go 80 miles per hour or more in a 65 m.p.h. zone. The
race of those stopped by the police generally reflected the race of those driving
faster than 80.
But that's not the end of the story. Even if police do not pull over drivers for being
black, research shows that blacks are much more likely than whites to have their
cars searched. Consent is a fuzzy concept when a police officer with the discretion
to impose a hefty fine casually asks if it's O.K. to search your car, ostensibly for
dangerous weapons, but really to find drugs.
Highway patrolmen are especially keen to look for drugs. Nothing better justifies
their job than finding a trunk full of contraband. But where they find it is determined
by where they look.
In one study by the Maryland State Police, over a 21-month period black motorists
accounted for more than half of searches and 59 percent of arrests. Yet the ''hit
rate,'' the odds that drugs are found in a search, is about the same for whites and
blacks. Maryland police found more drugs in blacks' cars simply because more
blacks were searched. That's not racial profiling; that's racist policing. And we
shouldn't confuse one with the other.
So kudos to Suffolk County for gathering data on race and policing. Race is a
factor in America and a factor in effective policing. Racism should never be.
Suffolk County police recently began recording the race of stopped drivers. The
police officer in me is suspicious of any effort to quantify a job that is — or
at least should be — qualitative. But the professor in me loves police data on race.
While some might question the logic of police officers gathering racial data in order
to disprove racial profiling, the practice is hardly revolutionary. Nassau County
police officers have been quietly recording similar data on stopped drivers for
more than two years. But simply knowing the race of stopped drivers is virtually
meaningless; the data will neither placate critics nor reflect well on what is
generally a good police department.
It's no secret among minorities that police officers use race on the job. According
to a 1999 Gallup poll, 42 percent of African-Americans believe they've been
stopped by the police solely because of race. Race matters in America, and until
it doesn't, it would be foolish, perhaps impossible, for police officers or anybody
else to completely ignore it. The issue isn't that police officers observe race; it's
how they act on this information.
When I was a police officer in Baltimore, probably 90 percent of the drivers I pulled
over were black. Did I profile? Race was certainly one factor on my mind. But
statistics don't begin to tell the story. In my part of Baltimore, 99 percent of
the residents were African-American. I was very suspicious of whites driving slowly
around drug corners in the neighborhood at 3 a.m. Some might say I profiled white
people. I call it good policing based on professional experience and local
knowledge.
Any policy that casts a blanket assumption of guilt on all police officers will not only
have a devastating effect on morale, it will also change their behavior for the
worse. There's an old police cliché, troubling but true, that if you don't do any
work you can't get in trouble. As for racist officers, they can just fudge the data.
Really, who's going to check?
Counterintuitively, officers who have to defend their professional discretion against
accusations of racial bias are more likely to ticket and arrest those they stop.
Giving a poor person a verbal warning rather than an expensive fine can be
both humane and effective policing. But it's no defense against an accusation of a
racially biased stop. Tickets and lock-ups serve as proof of the probable cause
needed for a legal stop.
Eight percent of Suffolk County and nearly 18 percent of New York State is black.
Just what is the ''correct'' percentage of black drivers in Suffolk County for the
police to stop? Traffic stops shouldn't reflect census data or even road use.
Traffic stops, like arrests, should reflect the demographic characteristics of
offenders.
New Jersey provides a good warning lesson. Even though the average black driver
doesn't drive any differently than the average white driver, New Jersey troopers
were well known for stopping blacks disproportionately. Was this profiling?
Maybe, but New Jersey troopers weren't stopping average drivers. They were
stopping those driving the fastest.
Eventually, a few academics noted the race of drivers speeding down the New
Jersey Turnpike. It turned out that blacks — especially young black males — were
more likely than whites to go 80 miles per hour or more in a 65 m.p.h. zone. The
race of those stopped by the police generally reflected the race of those driving
faster than 80.
But that's not the end of the story. Even if police do not pull over drivers for being
black, research shows that blacks are much more likely than whites to have their
cars searched. Consent is a fuzzy concept when a police officer with the discretion
to impose a hefty fine casually asks if it's O.K. to search your car, ostensibly for
dangerous weapons, but really to find drugs.
Highway patrolmen are especially keen to look for drugs. Nothing better justifies
their job than finding a trunk full of contraband. But where they find it is determined
by where they look.
In one study by the Maryland State Police, over a 21-month period black motorists
accounted for more than half of searches and 59 percent of arrests. Yet the ''hit
rate,'' the odds that drugs are found in a search, is about the same for whites and
blacks. Maryland police found more drugs in blacks' cars simply because more
blacks were searched. That's not racial profiling; that's racist policing. And we
shouldn't confuse one with the other.
So kudos to Suffolk County for gathering data on race and policing. Race is a
factor in America and a factor in effective policing. Racism should never be.
| Driving While Black |
By Peter Moskos
New York Times
Long Island Weekly Desk
Long Island Weekly Desk
June 30, 2006
Cop in the Hood is an explosive insider’s story of what it
is really like to be a police officer on the front lines of the
war on drugs. Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos
became a cop in Baltimore’s roughest neighborhood—
the Eastern District, also the location for the critically
acclaimed HBO drama The Wire—where he experienced
the real-life poverty and violent crime firsthand. He
provides an unforgettable window into this world that
outsiders never see—the thriving drug corners, the
nerve-rattling patrols, and the heartbreaking failure of
911.
Moskos reveals the truth about the drug war and why it
is engineered to fail—a truth he learned on the midnight
is really like to be a police officer on the front lines of the
war on drugs. Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos
became a cop in Baltimore’s roughest neighborhood—
the Eastern District, also the location for the critically
acclaimed HBO drama The Wire—where he experienced
the real-life poverty and violent crime firsthand. He
provides an unforgettable window into this world that
outsiders never see—the thriving drug corners, the
nerve-rattling patrols, and the heartbreaking failure of
911.
Moskos reveals the truth about the drug war and why it
is engineered to fail—a truth he learned on the midnight
shift in Baltimore. He describes police-academy graduates fully unprepared for the
realities of the street. He tells of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates poor
black men on a mass scale—aself-defeating system that measures success by
arrest quotas and fosters a street code at odds with the rest of society—and
argues for drug legalization as the only realistic way to end drug violence and let
cops once again protect and serve. Moskos shows how officers in the ghetto are
less concerned with those policed than with self-preservation and maximizing
overtime pay—yet how any one of them would give their life for a fellow officer.
Cop in the Hood ventures deep behind the Thin Blue Line to disclose the inner
workings of law enforcement in America’s inner cities. Those who read it will never
view the badge the same way.
realities of the street. He tells of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates poor
black men on a mass scale—aself-defeating system that measures success by
arrest quotas and fosters a street code at odds with the rest of society—and
argues for drug legalization as the only realistic way to end drug violence and let
cops once again protect and serve. Moskos shows how officers in the ghetto are
less concerned with those policed than with self-preservation and maximizing
overtime pay—yet how any one of them would give their life for a fellow officer.
Cop in the Hood ventures deep behind the Thin Blue Line to disclose the inner
workings of law enforcement in America’s inner cities. Those who read it will never
view the badge the same way.
by Peter Moskos
