Black, Latino Residents Often Cited by California Police for Non-Traffic Infractions, Study Says

By M.G. Alison. First Posted: Oct 03, 2020 08:01 AM EDT

Black and Latino residents are the ones most often given a citation by the California police for minor, non-traffic infractions such as sleeping in public or loitering more than their White counterparts.

According to a study, Black residents account for 30 percent of the non-traffic infraction citations from 2017 to 2019 while only making up 7 percent of the population in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, Latino residents in Hayward, just outside San Francisco, account for 61 percent of non-traffic infraction citations even though they comprised only a third of the population.

Also, every person given a citation for marijuana possession in Hayward from 2017 to 2019 was a person of color.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area released the study on Sept. 30.

The study also found that Black adults account for 63 percent of all loitering citations issued by the police. And that they were 3.8 times more likely to be issued non-traffic infraction citations than the White adults.

Generally punishable by a fine, these citations include owning a dog without a license, standing or sleeping outside or jaywalking, among others. These non-traffic infractions have also been often used to homeless police members of a community.

According to one of the study's authors, Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, when people, the Black and Latino residents for example, are cited for these minor, non-traffic infractions, they conclude that they are being told not to exist in public places.

This inequality is also noted in other cities such as the Bay Area, San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego.

In Long Beach, Black adults also account for 36 percent of the citations issued for these non-traffic infractions when in fact they only make up 11 percent of the community.

It is also happening in Berkeley wherein the Blacks only make up 7 percent of the city's population but they account for 36 percent of the non-traffic infraction citations issued.

The Long Beach Police Department said in a statement that racial profiling is unacceptable and against the law as well as against their policies.

The statement further noted that they are committed to scrutinizing their strategies to make sure that communities of color will not feel that the police are profiling them.

What makes it worse is that these minor, non-traffic infractions are enforced in a racist and classist way.

Ressl-Moyer said that this is why she agrees on calls of defunding the police and instead use those funds for social services in an effort to reimagine community safety.

She added that the local government should spend for services to stabilize people who have met the criminal justice system, and people who have unmet needs in the municipality or those living in the streets instead of criminalizing them.

Being targeted for these infractions has "really high" costs on marginalized communities, such as the Black and Latino residents, who can be useful in the community if given an equal opportunity.