Michigan State Police Traffic Stop External Benchmarking: A Final Report on Racial and Ethnic Disparities

By Scott Wolfe, Travis Carter and Jedidiah Knode

This report presents the results of an external benchmark analysis of Michigan State Police (MSP) traffic stops conducted during 2020. There are five primary sections to this report: Census benchmark, traffic-crash benchmark, veil-of-darkness (VOD) benchmark, post-stop outcome analyses, and Secure Cities Partnership analyses. The goal of these analyses is to understand the extent of racial and ethnic disparities in traffic stop behavior. Below we briefly describe the methodology used for each analysis and summarize the main findings. When reviewing the results, it is imperative to understand the difference between “disparity” and “discrimination.” Disparity is an observed difference in the proportion of traffic stops involving a specific group of people compared to that group’s representation in another source of data. Discrimination, on the other hand, involves a police officer intentionally targeting and stopping racial or ethnic minorities solely because of their group status (i.e., racially profiling people and engaging in biased stop behavior). In this way, discrimination involves intent, whereas observed disparity cannot speak to whether an officer acted with intent. This report and its findings can speak only to the extent of racial/ethnic disparity in MSP traffic stops. The data cannot ascertain whether racially discriminatory practices are occurring within MSP.

East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, School of Criminal Justice, 2021. 101p.