Police Officer Discretion and Race in an American Midwestern City: Predicting Arrests,Citations,and Warnings: A Multivariate Examination

Abstract

In the recent past, there has been a significant policy space and political salience for issues pertaining to racial profiling and alleged discriminatory police practices. The notion of race as an influencing criterion for police decision making is particularly problematic as it challenges the fundamental assumption that the legal system is impartial and just. Biased policing practices will lead to allegations of constitutional rights violations, allegations of civil rights violations, create citizen distrust in law enforcement, and undermine legitimate law enforcement efforts. The present study analysed 13,566 traffic stops collected over a 24-month period in a midwestern American city with a population of roughly 33,000. The dataset contained a total of 66 predictors, including interaction terms and dummy variable coding. Multivariate regression findings do not lend conclusive support to the notion that police officers use race as a pretext for making arrests, issuing traffic citations, and/or giving warnings to motorists in the examined jurisdiction. Policy implications and future research directions are discussed.

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