The 2003 report on Missouri traffic stops finds black drivers – when compared to white drivers – are 40 percent more likely to be stopped. The results from this document, the fourth annual report, mirror the 2002 report which found black drivers were 40 percent more likely than white drivers to be pulled over by police. Attorney General Jay Nixon says there are other similarities to the 2002 report. For instance, blacks were stopped at a rate 36 percent higher than expected based on their proportion of the driving-age population, and they were 80-percent more likely to be searched. As for suggestions that having to keep this information might hinder police from doing their work, Nixon says that has not happened. Nixon says the results do not mean that Missouri police officers are racist. What the information does, according to Nixon, is allow police and the black community to take part in the important dialogue that’s necessary to build trust.
