Importance of the Research: In his first address to Congress, President George W. Bush said that he asked his Attorney General "to develop specific recommendations to end racial profiling. It's wrong, and we will end it in America." By the term "racial profiling," he was referring to a presumed unlawful use of race or ethnicity in police interdiction. Over the last ten years, numerous lawsuits have been brought against U.S. city police departments alleging racially biased law enforcement practices. Lawsuit settlement agreements often mandate that police departments collect data that would allow ongoing monitoring of the demographic characteristics of the individuals that they subject to stops and searches and of the outcomes of these encounters. Many police departments have begun to voluntarily collect such data. In this project we want to examine the issue of racial disparities in policing using the modern methods of economic analysis, both theoretical and empirical, as well as develop new methods.
Questions Addressed: A common pattern in these police datasets is that blacks and Hispanics tend to be overrepresented in police stops and searches, which raises a number of questions. First, do these disparities reflect police bias? Second, if they do not, should they be permitted---and, if so, under what circumstances? Are these disparities the inevitable byproduct of goal-oriented enforcement by an unbiased police? Third, what is the current state of the law, and what should be the legal approach to the use of race or ethnicity in policing?
The PIs propose to apply the rational choice approach to study the use of race in policing. The research program proceeds in three steps.
Year 1: Empirical Analysis of Existing Data Sets Analyze a number of existing data sets, using existing models and methods, some of which have been developed by the PIs. Also attempt to gather new data sets.
Year 2: Creation of New and Improved Theoretical Models. New theoretical models are needed to deal with hitherto ignored features of the data, such as the disparity in stops (as opposed to searches). The PIs will build on prior work in developing new models and use them derive new empirical tests for racial bias in policing. The tests will be implemented using the datasets from Year 1.
Year 3: Advancing the Legal Scholarship on Racial Profiling Litigation. Based on the results of the research in Years 1 and 2, the PIs will analyze whether the current legal framework allows successful prosecution of impermissible racial disparities, and offer possible improvements.
Broader Social Goals: The ultimate goals of the proposal are to improve our theoretical and empirical understanding of the phenomenon of racial disparities in policing, and then to apply the knowledge gained to suggest improvements to the current legal approach to racial profiling litigation.
