Attorney General's News Release

May 30, 2008

Annual report provides statistics on drivers for more than 1.5 million vehicle stops in Missouri during 2007

Jefferson City, Mo. - Attorney General Jay Nixon today presented copies of the eighth annual report on vehicle stops in Missouri to the Governor and the General Assembly. The report provides racial and ethnic information about drivers who were stopped in the course of more than 1.5 million vehicle stops made by 636 law enforcement agencies in Missouri during 2007. The report can be found online at ago.mo.gov.

The report is part of a law passed in 2000 that requires all law enforcement agencies in Missouri that conduct vehicle stops to report specific information about each stop. The law requires the Attorney General to then compile the information into a report for the Governor and the General Assembly no later than June 1.

Overall, the report documents 1,564,452 stops, 123,808 searches and 89,537 arrests from 2007. The report also includes a disparity index for each racial or ethic group of drivers. The disparity index compares the proportion of stops for drivers of a particular race or ethnicity to the proportion of state or local population of that racial or ethnic group. A value of 1 represents no disparity; values over 1 indicate over-representation, while values under 1 indicate under-representation.

The report shows that the disparity index for African-American drivers increased from 1.49 in 2006 to 1.58 in 2007, while the disparity index for Hispanic drivers decreased from 1.09 in 2006 to 1.00 in 2.07. A summary by three criminology professors who helped compile the report points out that some of the increase in the disparity index for African-American drivers may be due to the inclusion of investigative stops in the data. The law was changed in 2004 to require those stops to be reported.

The inclusion of investigative stops has resulted in an increase in stops of African-American drivers in Kansas City and St. Louis. In 2003, these two jurisdictions accounted for 26.9 percent of the stops (51,228 out of 190,264) of African-American drivers in Missouri. By 2007, these jurisdictions accounted for 36 percent of those stops (95,339 out of 264,307). During that same period, the disparity index for African-American drivers rose from 1.36 in 2003 to 1.58 in 2007.

The statewide numbers also indicate that in 2007, African-American drivers were 66 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers, while Hispanic drivers were five percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers. The 2007 report also shows that of those drivers who were stopped, 12.26 percent of African Americans, 14.96 percent of Hispanics, and 6.86 percent of whites were searched.

"While there is no single explanation why disparities exist, the inclusion of investigative stops and the resulting impact on the disparity index for African-American drivers has caused a trend that bears watching," Nixon said.

State law requires every law enforcement agency to have a written policy regarding racial profiling. Each agency also is required to provide annual training to officers and to promote the use of effective, non-combative methods for carrying out their duties in a racially and culturally diverse environment.

The number of agencies that did not submit reports as required by law increased only slightly, from 19 in 2006 to 22 in 2007. A list of those agencies has been turned over to the Governor, who has authority to withhold state funding from those agencies.

2007 Vehicle Missouri Stops Report

Inquiries from consumers should be directed to consumer@ago.mo.gov or 1-800-392-8222 (from within Missouri) or 573-751-3321 (outside Missouri).

All media inquiries should be directed to Press Secretary John Fougere.

E-mail      Phone: 573-751-8844         Fax: 573-751-5818