Not to mention, it would likely increase racial disparities in ticketing.
Is this a bad thing? If police target blacks, that's one thing, and that thing is targeting, and if there is targeting involved, that could likely increase this other thing, disparity. I'm thinking that a disparity is not a bad thing in and of itself. I'm also thinking that the circumstances behind the disparity can sometimes be a bad thing.
If you are looking for any minor violation to ticket, you'll get the best hit rate in poor, minority neighborhoods.
Awe, now this is targeting, and targeting can lead to disparity. I'm not saying such targeting is wrong. I have an idea of something that is wrong, but I'm not ready to concede that that is wrong, but for the sake of argument, I'll suppose it is, only because I'm interested in knowing whether my suspicion is correct. My suspicion is that racial disparity is not bad. What might lead to racial disparity very well might be, but regardless, the disparity itself not necessarily.
If an officer is prejudice and because of that prejudice targets a black and especially if he let's whites slide for the same offense, that to me is clearly prejudice based targeting of blacks--that (to me) clearly comes across as bad. What matters is the why. If an officer targets an area where more offences are more likely to occur because he's interested in writing more citations, then the disparity that results is incidental to the true target.
Yet, people who are hellbent on espousing racism cite the disparity that results. The statistical results is one thing, but what seems so very important to me would be an accurate unbiased interpretation of those numerical facts ... facts often cast as evidence of rampant racism.
By the way, if poor neighborhoods are so much more apt to be places where illegal traffic offenses occur, wouldn't that be a justification for targeting them? Just like disparity, not even targeting is necessarily a bad thing. It's the why. If you target a specific road where rich white kids notoriously speed, you don't set up addition patrols because you're a disgruntled black cop with a taste for revenge because of past racial transgressions, nor do you target such places because of how financially well off they are. You don't target them because of their color. Target the area for good reasons, and as disparities change, notice the other disparities that change. But, don't judge a wide eye-opening disparity without a proper unbiased neutral interpretation.
I'm not making accusations towards you--just trying to express my skepticism towards others who are quick to find ugly because of stats.
