Associated Press
BOSTON — Even though a study of traffic stops by police in Massachusetts found no evidence of racial disparity in the decision to pull over drivers, the Hadley Police Department is one of three agencies that researchers say was more likely to stop nonwhite drivers during the day than at night.
Hadley Police Chief Michael Mason said in a statement Tuesday that he is trying to fully understand the report, observing that the researchers from Salem State University, contracted by the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to conduct the study, say that statistical significance can result from factors outside those covered in the report.
“First and foremost, we at the Hadley Police Department are, as always, committed to ensuring that we treat all individuals fairly, equally and are transparent,” Mason said.
Mason points to steps the department has taken, including publishing annual reports about bias-free policing; use of force and police pursuit data; having a fully operational body and cruiser camera system in place for the past 18 months; completing annual trainings on subjects such as implicit bias and cultural competency; participating in a restorative justice program; and having an in-house mental health clinician, in partnership with Easthampton police, to respond to calls.
The report, looking at more than 425,000 traffic stops in Massachusetts during 10 months in 2020, discovered that Hispanic and Black motorists were more likely than white drivers to receive a criminal citation when stopped by police, while white drivers were more likely to get off with a warning. Municipal police conducted approximately 60% of the traffic stops that were studied.
Researchers applied what they described as the “Veil of Darkness” analysis to study the racial distribution of traffic stops. The method, first developed in 2006, compares stops made in darkness to those made in daylight, based on the logic that police officers are less likely to be able to determine a driver’s race at night than during the day.
This is where the report cites Hadley, as well as Massachusetts State Police Troop H-3 in Foxboro and the Ludlow Police Department, as places where nonwhite drivers were more likely to be stopped during the day than night. More than 280 police agencies had enough stops during what the report terms the inter-twilight period, both at dawn and at dusk, to obtain meaningful analysis.
Researchers caution that disparities in stops could stem from several factors, including whether the stop was discretionary or due to a radio call, motorist behavior or a triggering offense.
“This baseline research should serve as a starting point for deeper understanding, continued discussions, and further reflection. We caution that our findings do not confirm racial profiling and any incidents of statistical significance could have a variety of explanations other than officer bias,” Salem State researcher Gina Curcio said in a statement.
In Hadley, Mason said he wants to understand both the Veil of Darkness and inter-twilight terms better, but notes that of 913 stops recorded in town, 168 were for nonwhite drivers, which is below the state average, and during the inter-twilight period just 47 nonwhite drivers were stopped, compared to 262 white drivers.
“We look forward to discovering more about how this study was conducted and will approach this with an open mind to understand it and learn from it,” Mason said.
The statewide analysis found that of the drivers stopped, 65% were male, 34% were female, and about 1% were nonbinary. The mean age of stopped drivers was 37 years old, with 39% age 29 or younger and 61% age 30 or older.
White drivers accounted for 65% of traffic stops, while Black motorists accounted for 16%. Hispanic drivers represented 15% of stops, and 4% were determined to be either Asian, Asian-Pacific, American Indian, Middle Eastern or Pacific Islander. Nearly 68% of drivers stopped were not residents of the community where the stop occurred.
The statewide analysis found “no support for patterns of racial disparity in traffic stops.” Overall, nonwhite motorists were 36% less likely to be stopped in daylight — when they could potentially be seen and racially profiled — than in darkness, the report found.
