Special Report: Suffolk County Police Department Traffic Stops – Apr. 2022

Principal findings of analysis of SCPD overall traffic enforcement strategy in general and 2020 traffic stop data in particular

• SCPD engages in traffic enforcement focused on recovering contraband - a high-volume low-yield enterprise that predominantly targets young males of color in an ill-advised continuation of the discredited war on drugs and its corollary war on crime. Significant drug busts are rare.

• SCPD’s traffic enforcement of minorities is focused on recovering contraband, particularly drugs.  Blacks’ and Latinos’ are disproportionately targeted for investigatory stops putting them at a distinct disadvantage before their vehicle ever comes to a stop.  

• SCPD disproportionately stops vehicles with minority passengers and subjects those passengers to aggressive enforcement actions.  Community survey responses and pleadings in civil actions indicate that SCPD deliberately targets minority passengers and improperly demands that those who have committed no offense produce identification in order to check them for warrants.

• The overwhelming majority of Suffolk County’s middle-class whites are largely exempted from the interdiction strategy.

• Based on population, Blacks were 3.7 times as likely as whites to be stopped; Latinos were 1.8 times as likely as their white counterparts to be stopped.

• Once stopped, Blacks’ vehicles were searched at 4.6 times the rate of whites’ but found to contain contraband 9% less frequently. Blacks were personally searched more than 4 times as frequently as whites yet found to possess contraband 18% les frequently. Blacks were frisked at more than 6 times the rate of whites yet found in possession of weapons 30% less often than whites. Blacks were removed from their vehicles at 3.8 times the rate of whites, placed in the back of police cars 3.4 times more often, restrained at 3.3 times the rate of whites, subjected to the use of force at 10 times the rate of whites and arrested at 2.5 times the rate of whites.

• Latinos were searched 77% more frequently than whites, removed from their vehicles 67% more frequently than whites, restrained 53% more frequently than whites, frisked at 1.5 times the rate of whites yet found to possess weapons 58% less frequently than whites, and arrested 43% more frequently than whites.

• Disparities in warrantless search rates are not justified by contraband recovery (“hit”) rates.

• By way of comparison, the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation of the Ferguson, MO police department found that Black drivers were searched at 2 times the rate of whites and found to be in possession of contraband 26% less frequently. DOJ concluded that those corresponding disparities were credible indication that Ferguson’s “officers are impermissibly considering race as a factor when determining whether to search.”

• The disparities in SCPD’s discretionary enforcement actions rival and exceed the threshold DOJ established of the impermissible consideration of race (bias) by Ferguson, MO. Police.

• Racial disparities in SCPD’s stop odds ratios and search rates are greater than what Dr. Baumgartner described as a “double whammy”.

• Racial and ethnic disparities in discretionary enforcement stop decisions and outcomes are increasing over time, in spite of bias training, and have surpassed the level that County Executive Bellone deemed “unacceptable”.

• SCPD’s policing strategy is marked by racial/ethnic disparities in search rates and contraband recovery (“hit”) rates, in the use of non-lethal force, and in the severity of alternative outcomes. Young male Blacks and Latinos are forcibly removed from their vehicles, restrained, placed in the back of police cars, frisked and searched at alarmingly high rates.

Additional Findings

• The majority of the targeted aggressive activities occur in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd precincts where the majority of stops are investigatory.

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd precinct vehicle, person and passenger search rates and the rates at which passengers are forcibly removed from vehicles are intolerable.

• Latinos had the lowest verbal warning rate of all cohorts and were subjected to long duration stops at the highest rate of all cohorts.

• Search rate disparities are unsupported by HHS drug usage data, NYS DOH drug overdose and opioid burden data, or contraband hit rates – particularly in probable cause – drug searches of vehicles and probable cause searches of persons, the leading search reasons.

• Stop Sign violation stops: Blacks are 497% more likely than whites to be searched, 878% more likely to be frisked, 397% more likely to be restrained, and 290% more likely to be arrested.

• Equipment Violation stops: Blacks are 223% more likely than whites to be searched, 290% more likely to be frisked, 172% more likely to be restrained, and 157% more likely to be arrested.

The Harsh Disparities in the Daily Lived Experience

• During a “routine” traffic stop by SCPD, a 22-year-old Black male in the Town of Huntington is more likely than his white counterpart: to be removed from his vehicle (295%); to be frisked (227%); to be physically restrained (432%); to be searched (316%) and to be arrested (264%)

• As a passenger, a 20-year-old black male in Babylon is more likely than a 50-year-old White female in Smithtown: to be searched (374%); to be removed from the vehicle (240%); and to be restrained (88%)

The strategy is a failure

As a means of drug interdiction: SCPD expends valuable limited resources targeting minorities for marihuana arrests in western precincts while the opioid crisis is concentrated in Brookhaven and eastern precincts and whites’ opioid overdose fatality rates are significantly higher than minority rates.

As a means of promoting traffic safety: Suffolk has the worst traffic safety in NY; it leads NY in motor vehicle crashes and related fatalities.

Adverse public health implications: Public health research finds that physiological responses to such encounters, by those who experience them and community members who witness or learn of them, cause cumulative adverse health outcomes that exacerbate co-morbidities and literally shorten lives.

To view that data behind the summaries, click on the links below:
March 23, 2022 presentation to SCPD Commissioner Harrison

Appendix to March 23, 2022 presentation to SCPD Commissioner Harrison

To view the cover letter to SCPD Commissioner Harrison, click on the link below:
March 15, 2022 cover letter to SCPD Commissioner Harrison