From Fortune:

Black people accounted for nearly 13% of traffic stops in California in 2022, far above their 5% share of the state’s population. The report included data from all law enforcement agencies in California, showing a pervasive pattern of racial profiling. The report includes data from nearly 4.6 million vehicle and pedestrian stops by officers from 535 law enforcement agencies in 2022.

The report also shows that Hispanic or Latino people made up nearly 43% of the 2002 traffic stops, and white people accounted for more than 32%. Census estimates from 2021 say Black or African American people made up only 5.4% of California’s population of roughly 39 million, while white people were about 35.8%.

Andrea Guerrero, co-chairperson of the advisory board, stated that the scale of data collected in California allows them to definitively say that profiling exists and is a pervasive pattern across the state. The data will be used to change policies and practices that enable profiling and decrease racial disparities and bias in policing.

The report collected data on the race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status of people stopped by police to better identify and analyze bias in policing. It informs agencies, the state’s police office training board, and state lawmakers in changing policies to address racial disparities and bias in policing.

The report includes how officers perceive an individual’s race or gender, even if it’s different than how the person identifies, because the officer’s perception is what drives bias. Police departments across California must now work to ascertain and change the policies and practices that enable racial profiling.



Read more: Black people account for only 5% of California’s population but 13% of its traffic stops due to a ‘pervasive pattern’ of racial profiling, report says