Attorney General's News Release

May 27, 2004

Nixon issues fourth annual report on Missouri traffic stops

Jefferson City, Mo. — Attorney General Jay Nixon today released the 2003 report on traffic stops in Missouri. The report documents 1,360, 814 traffic stops, 105,821 searches and 74,663 arrests made by 616 law enforcement agencies across the state, providing information for several different racial and ethnic groups.

The 2003 report is the fourth such report — and the third containing 12 months of data — compiled by the Attorney General's Office since a Missouri law on racial profiling was passed in 2000. Nixon presented copies of the report to Gov. Bob Holden and the state General Assembly today, four days prior to the June 1 deadline required by the law.

"Law enforcement agencies in Missouri have overwhelmingly complied with the law requiring reporting of traffic stop data, both by collecting the data and by working with my office to ensure that our analysis is as accurate as possible," Nixon says. "This is a challenging public policy issue for all Americans. I appreciate that this data and its analysis have aided in the ongoing efforts to build trust between law enforcement and the communities it serves."

The statewide numbers in the 2003 report indicate that African-Americans were stopped at a rate 36 percent higher than expected based solely on their proportion of the driving-age population. When compared with whites, African-American drivers were 40 percent more likely to be stopped. The 2002 report also showed that African-Americans were 40 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers.

The 2003 report also shows that 12.44 percent of blacks who were stopped statewide were searched, compared to 6.91 percent of whites. A direct comparison of the two groups means an African-American driver who was stopped was 80 percent more likely to be searched than a white driver who was stopped.

Statewide, Hispanic drivers were stopped at a rate only a little more likely than their proportion of the population. Those Hispanic drivers who were stopped, however, were more than twice as likely to be searched as white drivers who were stopped.

Nixon cautioned that racial profiling could neither be proved or disproved by statistics alone, and that a statistical disproportion did not prove that law enforcement decisions involving traffic stops are being based solely on inappropriate factors.

"Analysis of the data — particularly the data supplied by individual law enforcement agencies — has proven to be a springboard for constructive dialogue between the agencies and the communities they serve," Nixon said.

Nixon said a list of the 56 agencies that did not meet the reporting deadlines contained in the law — down from 59 in 2002 — has been provided to the governor. State law allows the governor to withhold funding from any agency that does not comply. In 2003, the Missouri Department of Public Safety withheld more than $7,100 in state funding from 17 non-complying agencies.

"Missouri was the first state in the nation to undertake such analysis on this scale, and our state continues to be a national leader in committing resources to assess traffic stops and eliminate racial disparities in them," Nixon said. "The overwhelming majority of law enforcement agencies and their officers have diligently complied with Missouri law by collecting this information and have worked with my office to ensure that our analysis is as accurate as possible."

Nixon noted that state law requires every agency to not only have a written policy regarding racial profiling, but also to provide additional training to officers, and to promote the use of effective, non-combative methods for carrying out their duties in a racially and culturally diverse environment.

"I must reiterate what I have said in analyzing each of these reports: law-abiding drivers have the right to travel throughout Missouri without the fear that they will be stopped based solely of their race or ethnicity," Nixon says. "I join with law enforcement officers from all parts of our state and with Missourians of all races in this commitment."

Inquiries from consumers should be directed to consumer@ago.mo.gov or 1-800-392-8222 (from within Missouri) or 573-751-3321 (outside Missouri).

All media inquiries should be directed to Press Secretary John Fougere.

E-mail      Phone: 573-751-8844         Fax: 573-751-5818