Officials seek to replace Missouri's flawed racial profiling data

Officials seek to replace Missouri's flawed racial profiling data

FLORISSANT • If there's a better way for the state to measure racial profiling in traffic stops, Florissant Police Chief William Karabas would like to see it.

Last year, a state report showed his city to be among Missouri's worst places to "drive black." The figures indicated that Florissant officers were nine times more likely to stop a black driver than a white.

That's according to a yardstick the state uses, which compares the race of drivers stopped with the racial makeup of the community. It's a method that has remained unchanged since 2000, when state law began requiring police to report their stops to the state attorney general's office for annual tracking.

The law put Missouri in the forefront of identifying, and presumably addressing, harassment of minorities.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_0a17029b-f968-580d-8cff-b14becfc0dcc.html