"Racial disparities affect not only guilty but also innocent minorities. When patrolling the streets, the police stop cars for traffic violations, and sometimes engage in undercover operations if they think is suspicious of more serious crimes such as drug trafficking or prostitution. It is the police's decision of whom to identify as potential criminal suspects, and there is a clear racial discretion existing in this tactic.5 Under a federal court consent decree, traffic stops by the Maryland State Police on Interstate 95 were monitored. In the two-year period from January 1995 to December 1997, 70% of the drivers stopped and searched by the police were black, while only 17.5% of overall drivers " as well as overall speeders " were black.6 To look at similar case in Volusia County , Florida, in 1992, nearly 70% of those stopped on a particular Interstate highway in central Florida were black or Hispanic, although only 5% of the drivers on that highway were black or Hispanic. Moreover, minorities were detained for longer periods of time per stop than whites, and were 80% of those whose cars were searched after being stopped.7 Showing the similar statistic to the previous two, a study of traffic stops on the New Jersey Turnpike found that 46% of those stopped were black, although only 13.5% of the cars on the road had a black driver or passenger and although there was no significant difference in the driving patterns of white and nonwhite motorists.8 To further acknowledge the racially discriminated profiling, ABC news program "20/20 " did a test as part of a report in 1992. Two cars, one filled with young black men, the other with young white men, navigated the same route, in the same car, at the same speed through Los Angeles streets on successive nights. The car filled with young black men was stopped by the police several times; the white group was not stopped once, despite observing police cars in their immediate area at least 16 times during the evening.
