Policing queer and disabled identities: an intersectional approach to study police bias

• In Event: Gender, Sexuality, and Resistance

Abstract

Scholars have extensively used administrative records of police stops to uncover racial disparities and bias in law enforcement practices. Despite this, and due to lack of data recording such variables, we know very little about how other marginalized identities such as queerness and disability are policed. In this article, I fill this gap by analyzing about 200,000 traffic stops in San Francisco between 2018 and 2023, looking at whether motorists who are perceived as either LGBTQ+ or disabled are disproportionately targeted by the police. Through multiple tests and models, I find consistent evidence that queerness and disability are associated with a higher probability of being searched and arrested by the police. Then, using an intersectional approach I test whether the interaction of race with queerness or disability worsens police discrimination. Results show that bias gets worse for minorities in some cases and always for Whites who, if LGBTQ+ or disabled, face at least equal discrimination in searches and arrests as racialized civilians.

Author

• Emanuele Murgolo, Pompeu Fabra University