LA Police stop more Blacks, Hispanics than Whites

. Los Angeles police officers stop and search Black and Hispanic residents before they stop White ones, even though Whites are more often found carrying guns and contraband, according to a report released Monday by a civil liberties group. “The results of this study raise grave concerns that African Americans and Hispanics are over-stopped, over-frisked, over-searched and over-arrested,” wrote report author Ian Ayres, a Yale Law School economist and professor.  Ayres’ findings, published by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, are based on the Los Angeles Police Department’s own numbers for pedestrian and motor vehicle stops in the year July 2003 to June 2004. Even after researchers controlled for demographics and neighborhood crime rates, they found significantly higher stop rates for Black and Latino residents. For every 10,000 residents, Blacks were nearly three times more likely to be stopped than White and other “non-minority” residents, facing 3,400 more stops. Hispanics were stopped on 350 more occasions. “These stark statistics … give a numeric lens for the lived experience of ‘driving while Black’ or ‘driving while Hispanic,”‘ Ayres wrote.