Blacks and Latinos fare worse in traffic stops

WASHINGTON —  Black, Latino and white drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but the black and Latino drivers are more likely to be searched and arrested, a Justice Department study found.

Police are more likely to threaten or use force against blacks and Latinos than against whites in any encounter, traffic stop or not, the study said.

About 9% of drivers in the U.S. were stopped by police in 2005, it said.

Among the stopped drivers, blacks and Latinos were more than twice as likely to be searched than whites: Police searched 9.5% of the blacks, 8.8% of the Latinos and 3.6% of the whites.

And police arrested 2.1% of the whites, compared with 4.5% of the blacks and 3.1% of the Latinos.

The study, released Sunday by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, covered police contacts with the public in 2005 and was based on Census Bureau interviews with more than 60,000 people age 16 or older.

“The numbers are very consistent” with 2002 figures, said statistician Matthew R. Durose, coauthor of the report.

Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s racial justice project, said, “This report shows there are still disturbing disparities.”