Looking Beyond the Veil of Darkness: Police Traffic Citation Bias in Ferndale, MI

Abstract

With the support of the City of Ferndale and the Ferndale Police Department, I conducted research into possible police bias in traffic citations to help end a stalemate between activists and officers, and chart a path towards reform if bias was found. After accessing and filtering the citation records furnished by the Ferndale Police Department, I began a preliminary “Veil of Darkness” study on 2016 traffic stops. That study was later expanded to include data from 2011 through 2017, and then compared with an analytical model based on adjusted census data. I found that while the observed police bias did not match the levels suggested by the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (Associated, 2014), there is tentative evidence of racial bias against black drivers. When expanded to 7 years, the Veil of Darkness method did not show bias. However, the adjusted census benchmark showed that black drivers are cited at rates nearly 20 percentage points higher than expected from a representative sample. In addition, I found that black women were more likely to be cited than black men, and young black drivers ages 16-24 were more likely to be cited than older black drivers.