newjerseynewsroom.com

Fewer African-Americans but more Hispanics and Asians being pulled over

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The latest statistics — for the last half of 2009 — on the number of minority motorists stopped by the State Police show the number of African-Americans pulled over slightly decreased while the number of Hispanics and Asians halted slighted increased when compared to the first half of that year.

The figures were released Thursday by the state attorney general’s office, which has taken over the monitoring of troopers for potential racial profiling from the federal government. The monitoring has been underway for a decade.

The percentage of African-Americans pulled over decreased from 17.9 to 17 percent, but increased slightly for Hispanics from 10.9 percent to 11.4 percent and Asians 6 to 6.3 percent.

African-American accounted for 31.8 percent of those subjected to force, asked to leave the vehicle or to submit to a search. Arrests of African-Americans decreased from 34 to 32 percent. In the initial data collected by the federal government for the period from January to April 2000, African Americans accounted for 40 percent of all arrests.

The report provides the number of body searches, pat-downs and use of force was mainly unchanged when compared with the last federal report, which covered November 2008 to the end of April 2009.

State authorities are praising the new numbers as a sign profiling is part of the past.

"Under the consent decree, New Jersey troopers set the standard for best practices in the law enforcement community," State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said. "But our reforms were designed to be sustainable long after the decree was dissolved."