Who's more likely to face an arrest?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=2360974

Published Friday | April 6, 2007
Who's more likely to face an arrest?
BY LYNN SAFRANEK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Blacks in Nebraska were more than four times as likely to be arrested during traffic stops last year than the general population, a new report says, while Hispanics and American Indians were twice as likely to be taken into police custody.

The report, released Friday by the Nebraska Crime Commission, notes that the data can't show whether drivers' race or ethnicity were factors in officers' decisions to stop the vehicles. But according to a member of the state's Minority and Justice Task Force, there's a perception among minorities of a "hypervigilance" among law enforcement officials and a distrust of minorities that leads officers to pull them over disproportionately more often than whites.

"Is there any way to prove that it was because of their race? Quite often not," said Jose J. Soto of Lincoln.

The report focuses on what happened after the stops. Blacks were arrested in 20 percent of traffic stops in the state in 2006, the commission found. That percentage is higher than in 2002, when collection of the data began, but it it is nearly the same as 2005 and slightly less than data reported from 2004.

The commission found that 4.5 percent of all traffic stops in Nebraska in 2006 resulted in a person being taken into police custody for an arrest.

Minorities also were subjected to police searches of their vehicles more often than whites and Asians or Pacific Islanders, the report said.

For blacks across Nebraska, vehicle searches were conducted in 5 percent of traffic stops. The percentage for blacks was slightly smaller in Omaha - 4.2 percent.

In general, Omaha police searched vehicles in 1 percent fewer cases than law enforcement agencies statewide.

Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren attributes the statistic to the Omaha police policy on traffic stops, which prohibits officers from searching vehicles only because of a traffic infraction. Omaha police officers need a driver's permission to search vehicles on a random basis.

Former Public Safety Auditor Tristan Bonn tackled Omaha police traffic stops in the last report she issued before her firing in October.

In her report, Bonn said minority residents of northeast and southeast Omaha were pulled over for minor traffic violations more often than people in other parts of town.

Warren responded at the time that Bonn's findings were not true.

The chief said the data released by the crime commission refutes Bonn's claims.

FULL story at link.