California Police Over Twice as Likely to Use Force Against Blacks, Reports State Board

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - California law enforcement was more than twice as likely to use force against people they perceived as Black during traffic and pedestrian stops in 2021, California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board said in an annual report.

"Officers used force against people perceived as Black at 2.2 times the rate of individuals perceived as White," the California Attorney General's office said in a press release accompanying the report on Tuesday. "For those perceived as Latino, officers used force against them at 1.3 times the rate of individuals perceived as White."

The report, which is based on data pulled from 58 law enforcement agencies, includes analysis of 3.1 million vehicle and pedestrian stops by officers in 2021.

The data includes what officers perceived to be the race, ethnicity, gender and disability status of people they stop so that the state can better identify and analyze bias in policing.

The most commonly reported reason for a stop across all racial/ethnic groups was a traffic violation (86.1 percent), followed by reasonable suspicion that the person was engaged in criminal activity (11.5 percent).

A greater percentage of Black people were stopped for reasonable suspicion than any other racial identity group, according to the study.