SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Law enforcement in California is now required to collect data on the people they stop, following a law signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2015.
This information includes perceived race, ethnicity and gender, and has revealed some disturbing trends, especially when it comes to Black and Hispanic residents who are pulled over or stopped on the street by law enforcement.
This new report finds that in 2020 statewide, there were 2.9 million traffic & pedestrian stops by law enforcement: a 26% drop from the year before, most likely a result of the pandemic.
However, a closer look at those numbers also reveals racial and gender disparities.
"There weren't surprises," said Eryn Wilson Nieves, the civic engagement program director for the nonprofit Alliance San Diego, which strives to eliminate racial profiling by law enforcement.
She said this latest report, issued by California's Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, confirms what similar statewide studies have also found.
"The numbers are continuously showing that there seems to be an issue with police interactions when it comes to people of color," Wilson Nieves told CBS 8.
The report found that statewide, Black people were searched 2.4 times more often than white people, and officers used force against Black people at 2.6 times the rate of white people.
Also noteworthy: officers used force against those perceived to have a mental disability 5.2 times more often than those not perceived to have one; and transgender women were searched at 2.5 times the rate of individuals perceived to be cisgender women.
Here in San Diego, Wilson Nieves points to hopeful signs of progress, like the San Diego City Council's decision to form a new Commission on Police Practices.
"While the policies are changing, people's day-to-day interactions with police departments and police officers are not changing," she added.
Focusing on the San Diego Police Department, the report, citing data from the Center for Policing Equity, stated that people perceived as Black experienced non-traffic stops 3.5 times as often as people perceived as white.
During traffic stops, officers searched people perceived as Black 2.5 times as often as people perceived as white, and searched people perceived as Latinx 2.2 times as often as people perceived as white.
CBS 8 reached out to SDPD for comment but had not received a response as of Wednesday night
Wilson Nieves said that law enforcement has had a consistent message to community groups like hers.
"They say, 'We want to change,' 'We want to be better,' 'We want to do better," she said. "But those words never seem to come to fruition, they're never seen in action."
To take a look at this entire report, click here.
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