Blacks and Hispanics are stopped more than Whites while driving in Virginia

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WRIC 8 News reported on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 that a new state report shows Black and Hispanic drivers are still more likely to be stopped on Virginia’s roads than their white counterparts.

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The Department of Criminal Justice Services found that Black and Hispanic drivers accounted for 40% of the state’s traffic stops in 2023, despite making up less than 30% of Virginia’s driving-age population.

• Black drivers made up 29.4% of the state’s traffic stops despite making up only 19.4% of the state’s driving-age population.
• Hispanic drivers accounted for 10.2% of all traffic stops despite making up only 9.2% of the driving-age population.
• By comparison, white drivers make up 63.7% of the driving-age population but accounted for only 57.4% of traffic stops.

Rob Poggenklass, Executive Director of Justice Forward Virginia, explained:

“The bias exists. Black people are not any more likely to commit crimes than white people, but yet they are searched much more often than white people are searched. They are arrested more than white people are arrested. They are stopped more than white people are stopped.”

The report also found that Black and Hispanic drivers are more likely to be searched or arrested during a traffic stop.

Poggenklass told 8News:

“We would just like to eliminate those types of searches so that law enforcement doesn’t have the incentive to pull people over for minor discrepancies and try and search them."

Do you believe the above report?