Dear Supporters of our Police Reform Project, One challenge we have faced in seeking to address police practices that disproportionately affect People of Color is establishing that they do. When states or localities do not collect information about who is being stopped, it can present an obstacle, not just in persuading legislators and the community who do not experience these stops that there is a problem but in other circumstances as well. For example, in litigating criminal cases and trying to prove that a stop was based on racial profiling, without the data it can be nearly impossible to link the stops to the disparities. As we began to research racial disparities in pretext stops for the report we issued last year, we relied on a variety of resources, most of which depended on racial data which was included in the police reports in other jurisdictions. But what happens when that is not available? Unlike some other states and localities, New York currently has no requirement that racial demographic data be collected in traffic violation stops. Local legislation has been passed in some jurisdictions, including a Buffalo ordinance passed in 2021 and a Syracuse ordinance passed in 2020, requiring collection of racial data in certain stops (1). We recently learned of one use of the data created by the Right to Know Law in Buffalo. A study was commissioned to determine if racial profiling was occurring in a community within the City of Buffalo. A Buffalo criminal attorney sought data on Buffalo stops. The Erie County Bar Association Assigned Counsel Panel retained Russell Weaver, Ph.D, a professor at Cornell and Director of Research at the School of Industrial Labor relations, to review Buffalo census data, crime data, and traffic stop data, to determine if there were disproportionately large numbers of people stopped in communities of color in Buffalo. Dr. Weaver is a geographer and quantitative social scientist with a Ph.D in geography and an M.A. in economics. In his research, he ruled out higher crime levels as a reason for the stops. The report, which has not been published but was submitted in court proceedings, was provided to Empire Justice Center by the Buffalo attorney. The question posed by Dr. Weaver in his analysis was, whether levels of traffic stops and police surveillance in the vicinity of the predominantly Black or African American MLK Park neighborhood are (mis)aligned with observable local patterns of crime incidents and traffic violations. Stated another way, the question is whether observed patterns of proactive policing in the study area are proportionate to empirically-identifiable risks to public safety – in the form of crime incidents and documented traffic violations – present therein. Dr. Weaver observed, based on analysis of traffic stops and Buffalo Police Department surveillance cameras, as well as other sources, “predominantly Black neighborhoods in Buffalo in general, and the MLK Park neighborhood in particular, are subject to outsized levels of traffic stops and surveillance.” Additionally, he concluded that (O)utsized levels of surveillance and traffic stops Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods, especially MLK Park, are misaligned with observable patterns of traffic violation behavior. The results strongly suggest that the distribution of traffic stop receipts in Buffalo is more closely tied to the distribution of Black persons than to the distribution of traffic offenses. In other words, this section produced evidence to support the claim that place-based racial profiling is at least partially responsible for the uneven distribution of traffic stop receipts in Buffalo. At bottom, these findings show that the empirically-observable, outsized levels of surveillance and traffic stops in Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods, especially MLK Park, are misaligned with observable patterns of traffic violation behavior. Data collection is an important step in determining whether racial disparities exist in traffic enforcement in a community. Ensuring the data is transparent is another critical component of tackling this problem. As reflected by the Weaver study discussed above, analysis can provide an even greater understanding of the scope of the problem. We commend leaders in the cities of Buffalo and Syracuse for passing local laws that enable collection and analysis of data. And for those communities that are not yet on the data collection train, we strongly encourage them to join. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Katie Blum, Esq. Jill Paperno, Esq. (1) Some cities and localities in New York require racial data be collected, either based on legislation or as a result of lawsuits. A Buffalo law requires stop receipts reflect the race of the driver. https://www.wbfo.org/2023-12-12/driving-while-black-in-buffalo-racial-disparities-in-traffic-stops-in-all-council-districts . The Syracuse police department collects the data. https://library.municode.com/ny/syracuse/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=REGEOR_CH19PODE_S19-9RIKN . In Suffolk County, there is an online dashboard posting racial data for stops created as a result of litigation. https://suffolkpd.org/Transparency-Hub/Traffic-Stop-Dashboard | 
