Analysis of Police Vehicle Stops in Cincinnati: A Geographic Perspective

  • Lin Liu University of Cincinnati
  • John Eck University of Cincinnati
Keywords: Traffic Stops, Police Vehicle Stops, Racial Profiling, Policing, GIS

Abstract

This study analyzes police vehicle stop data collected during the second half of 2001. In addition to addressing questions such as who is stopped and why vehicles are stopped, this article focuses on the geographic variation and racial variations of the stops in the fifty-two neighborhood areas of the City of Cincinnati. Racial disparities in vehicle stops are often linked to the controversial issue of racial profiling. A new measure, disproportioniality, is developed to better capture such disparities. Many earlier studies used census population as the baseline in calculating disproportionality indices, based on an implicit assumption that people only drive in the neighborhood where they live. A reasonable baseline should reflect how many people drive in a neighborhood and how many miles are driven in a neighborhood. This study replaces census population by vehicle miles as the baseline. An innovative approach is developed to estimate vehicle miles in each neighborhood. The research concludes that small disparities exist between Black and White drivers in Cincinnati while the magnitude varies significantly by neighborhood areas, and that the spatial pattern of stops appears to be associated with those of driving patterns, crime, drug calls, overall demand for police services, and traffic accidents. Specifically, the correlations between stopping rates for African-Americans and accident rates and minor crimes are particularly high.

References

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Published
2016-02-23
Issue
Vol 27 (2007): Special Issue: A Century of Geography at the University of Cincinnati
Section
Articles
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