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47 Policing: Int'l J. 495 (2024)
Race, Local Context, and Traffic Stops: An Examination of Racial Profiling in Traffic Stops in Rural and Non-Rural Places

handle is hein.journals/polic47 and id is 493 raw text is: The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1363-951X.htm Race, local context, and traffic stops: an examination of racial profiling in traffic stops in rural and non-rural places Janice Iwama American University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Abstract Purpose - The current study examines the effects of race, agency and environment on traffic stops in rural and non-rural spaces. Design/methodology/approach - Using traffic stop data collected in a Midwest US County fromJanuary 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021, the current study uses logistic regression to examine racial disparities in traffic stops. Findings- The results indicate that police decision-making in traffic stops maybe influenced by other factors besides a driver's race or ethnicity. In other words, the police officer's decision making in a traffic stop varies between small and large agencies as well as rural and non-rural places. Originality/value - This study provides one of the few examinations of racial disparities in traffic stops in rural places. Keywords Racial profiling, Racial disparities, Traffic law enforcement, Rural/urban police Paper type Research paper Race, local context, and traffic stops 495 Received 3 December 2023 Revised 3 February 2024 7 February 2024 8 February 2024 Accepted 8 February 2024 Introduction Earlier studies on racial profiling have indicated that police interactions can have a significant impact on police legitimacy and therefore, it is important to protect citizens from racial profiling to promote confidence and trust between police and community members. With several states now requiring their local law enforcement agencies to collect and report on traffic stop data, there is growing evidence that a disproportionate number of non-White drivers are the subject of a traffic stop. In other words, the phenomenon of Driving While Black, which is a term used to describe the practice of racial profiling in traffic stops, is now being supported by patterns found in traffic stop data collections (Hannon etal., 2021; Pierson et al, 2020). Not surprisingly, the data also reveal disparities in the enforcement of traffic laws across different places (Engel et al., 2002; McCabe et al., 2021; Shjarback et al, 2017; Shoub et al., 2020). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly 87% of local police departments have fewer than 50 full-time sworn officers and 70% of all departments serve fewer than 10,000 residents (Goodison, 2022). Yet, most research conducted to-date has focused on policing practices by departments with more than 1,000 full-time sworn officers in major urban areas (e.g. Chanin et al, 2018; Zhang and Zhang, 2021). Residents in rural areas, however, have argued that many of the concerns with racial profiling in traffic stops exist in their This paper was based on a study conducted under the direction of Principal Investigators (PI) Jack McDevitt and Janice Iwama and funded by the Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). The author thanks the members and staff of the CJCC and local police agencies for their efforts in Policing: An International Journal ol4No,2024 collecting and reporting on the data used in the study. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or pp. 495508 recommendations expressed in the article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views © Emerald Publishing Limited of the funding agency or police agencies. DOI 10.1108/PIJPSM-12-2023-0167

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