Driving While Black or Brown: Ten Years Later

• In Event: Reflections in Honor of the Life and Influence of Professor Richard Lundman

Abstract

In honoring the policing research of Richard Lundman, I revisit the Police-Public Contact Survey data to measure the relationship between extralegal factors and police decisions during routine traffic stops. To fully grasp the importance of traffic ticket outcomes we must first understand how extralegal factors, particularly the intersections between officer race-driver race/ethnicity and the number of vehicle occupants, impact these outcomes. Thus, the current study utilizes the 1999 and 2008 Police-Public Contact Survey to assess the relationship between extralegal factors and traffic ticket receipt during routine traffic stops. Findings illustrate that according to citizens’ reports, extralegal factors, including the intersections between officer race-driver race/ethnicity and the number of vehicle occupants, differentially impact traffic ticket receipt in both years.

Author

• Stacia Gilliard-Matthews, Rutgers University