The report also documents the Oakland Police Department’s efforts to address racial profiling, informed by a Racial Profiling Task Force with representatives from police officer organizations, the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the NAACP, PolicyLink, RAND Corporation, and People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO).

“We commend the Oakland Police Department for working closely with the community to address racial profiling, and for putting policies in place that can be models for the rest of the nation,” said Task Force member Mark Schlosberg, ACLU-NC’s Police Practices Policy Director. These policies include comprehensive data collection, a clear prohibition on racial profiling, and limitations on consent searches.

One of the report’s key findings is that Oakland police are not consistently using the data collection form or reporting all traffic stops. As a result, the available data have significant statistical limitations. In view of this underreporting problem, the RAND researchers strongly recommend “regular audits of reporting compliance and a program for improving compliance.”

The data collected do indicate racial bias in two aspects of post-stop activity: African-American motorists are more likely to be pat-searched following a traffic stop, and they are held by police for longer periods of time, than similarly situated White motorists. However, different measures provided conflicting and inconclusive results about the presence of bias in officers’ initial decisions about which drivers to stop.

“The significant under-reporting of traffic stops makes it hard to know what’s really happening on the streets. It is essential that the Department enforce the data collection policy and keep moving forward with other critical reforms to ensure that officers are not engaging in racial profiling,” said Schlosberg.