Are Black and Latino Californians Still Stopped by Law Enforcement at Disproportionate Rates?

Lofstrom, Martin, and Susanto (2026) examined whether racial disparities in law enforcement stops in California narrowed between 2019 and 2023. They analyzed more than 15 million traffic and pedestrian stops reported by California’s 15 largest law enforcement agencies under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). They found that overall stops declined sharply after the pandemic, remaining about one million below pre-pandemic levels by 2023. The Black-white gap in police stop rates fell by 56.9%, and no-enforcement disparities largely disappeared. However, Black and Latino Californians remained more likely than whites to be searched and experience intrusive actions such as curbside detention, indicating that significant disparities persist despite overall improvement.      

Why This Article Was Selected for The Policy Scientist

Lofstrom, Martin, and Susanto make a valuable contribution to an issue that sits at the center of public trust in government institutions. The question of whether racial disparities in law enforcement encounters are narrowing has implications that extend well beyond policing, touching on legitimacy, equal treatment under the law, and the relationship between citizens and the state. The topic is especially timely because California has invested heavily in data collection and transparency through the Racial and Identity Profiling Act, creating an opportunity to assess whether measurable changes have occurred. The authors have produced several prior studies using these data, allowing this report to build on an established research agenda. The dataset—more than 15 million stops across California’s largest law enforcement agencies—is exceptionally large and provides strong descriptive evidence, although the authors appropriately acknowledge potential reporting concerns. The findings are likely informative for other large and diverse jurisdictions that have implemented similar stop-reporting systems. Methodologically, the study relies primarily on descriptive analyses and multivariate statistical adjustments rather than causal inference techniques. While these methods are appropriate for monitoring trends, future research would be strengthened by designs that more directly identify causal effects of policy changes or training interventions.

Full Citation and Link to Article

Lofstrom, M., Martin, B., & Susanto, L. (2026, March). Have racial disparities in law enforcement stops narrowed? Public Policy Institute of California.

Central Research Question

Lofstrom, Martin, and Susanto investigate whether racial and ethnic disparities in law enforcement stops in California narrowed between 2019 and 2023. The study examines both the likelihood of being stopped and the outcomes of those encounters across racial and ethnic groups. The authors are particularly interested in whether Black, Latino, Asian, and white Californians experienced changes in stop rates, search rates, enforcement actions, and intrusive police behaviors during a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened public attention to policing practices, and the implementation of California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of RIPA itself, the report focuses on documenting trends and measuring whether disparities have increased, decreased, or remained unchanged over time.

Previous Literature

This report builds upon a growing body of research examining racial disparities in policing. Previous studies have consistently found that Black and Latino individuals experience higher stop rates, greater search rates, and more intrusive law enforcement encounters than white individuals. Earlier work by these same authors analyzed California’s initial RIPA data and concluded that contextual factors such as stop location, traffic violations, warrants, and probation or parole status explained some, but not all, observed disparities. Significant differences remained even after accounting for these factors.

The report also contributes to a broader literature concerned with police discretion, racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes, and procedural fairness. Earlier research frequently documented disparities at a single point in time. By contrast, this study focuses on changes over time, allowing the authors to assess whether disparities have narrowed during a period of substantial institutional and social change. In this respect, the report extends prior research by examining trends rather than merely documenting the existence of disparities.

Data

The study relies on data collected under California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act. The dataset includes more than 15.5 million pedestrian and traffic stops conducted between 2019 and 2023 by California’s 15 largest law enforcement agencies. These agencies include the California Highway Patrol, eight municipal police departments, and six county sheriff’s departments.

The dataset contains detailed information on officer-perceived race and ethnicity, gender, age, disability status, English fluency, reasons for stops, actions taken during stops, searches, contraband discoveries, and enforcement outcomes. The breadth of these data represents one of the most comprehensive law enforcement stop datasets currently available in the United States.

A notable strength of the dataset is its size and scope. The authors are able to analyze millions of encounters across multiple agency types and jurisdictions. At the same time, they acknowledge limitations. The data depend upon officer reporting and cannot independently verify either the accuracy or completeness of reported stops. The authors identify unusual reporting patterns for several agencies, suggesting that some data quality concerns may exist. Nevertheless, the dataset provides an unusually rich foundation for examining trends in policing outcomes over time.

Methods

The authors employ a combination of descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses. They begin by documenting changes in stop volumes and stop outcomes across agencies and racial groups. They then calculate population-adjusted stop rates, searches, and intrusive encounters per 100,000 residents to facilitate comparisons across demographic groups.

To examine disparities among individuals who were stopped, the authors estimate regression models that adjust for factors such as stop reasons, agency type, and stop context. These models allow them to compare outcomes across racial and ethnic groups while accounting for observable differences in circumstances surrounding stops.

The methodological approach is appropriate for monitoring trends and identifying patterns in large administrative datasets. However, the study does not employ causal inference techniques capable of identifying the effects of specific policy changes. There is no experimental or quasi-experimental design, and the analysis cannot determine whether observed changes were caused by RIPA, pandemic-related shifts, changes in enforcement priorities, staffing levels, public scrutiny, or other factors. Consequently, the report is best understood as a descriptive and analytical assessment of trends rather than a causal evaluation of policy interventions.

Findings/Size Effects

The most dramatic finding is the substantial reduction in overall law enforcement stops. Monthly stops fell sharply at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and remained well below pre-pandemic levels through 2023. Compared with 2019, California experienced roughly one million fewer stops in 2023.

The decline varied across agency types. Police departments experienced the largest reduction, with stops falling by approximately 53.5 percent. Sheriff’s departments recorded an 18.3 percent decline, while California Highway Patrol stops decreased by 12.1 percent.

The study finds evidence that racial disparities in stop rates narrowed substantially, particularly among police departments. The Black-white police stop rate gap declined from approximately 32,750 stops per 100,000 residents in 2019 to 14,120 in 2023, a reduction of 56.9 percent. The Black-white gap in no-enforcement stops fell by roughly 80.7 percent. Black-white disparities in searches and curbside detentions also declined substantially.

However, the reduction in stop-rate disparities did not eliminate disparities entirely. Black and Latino Californians continued to be stopped more frequently than white Californians. Asians consistently experienced the lowest stop rates across racial and ethnic groups.

The findings regarding search rates are more mixed. Black individuals remained substantially more likely than white individuals to be searched during police stops. The Black-white search disparity among police stops measured approximately 8.5 percentage points in 2023. Latino-white search disparities remained elevated as well. Similar patterns appeared among sheriff’s departments and CHP stops.

The report also documents changes in search productivity. Police searches of Black individuals became more likely to yield contraband than police searches of white individuals in 2023. This represented a reversal from earlier years, when searches of Black individuals produced lower discovery rates than searches of whites.

One area showing notable improvement concerns no-enforcement stops. By 2023, Black and Latino individuals stopped by police departments were no more likely than whites to experience stops that resulted in no enforcement action. This suggests that one historically observed disparity largely disappeared within police department encounters.

The most concerning findings involve intrusive stop outcomes. After adjusting for relevant factors, Black and Latino Californians remained more likely than whites to experience curbside detention, handcuffing, and other intrusive police actions. Moreover, these disparities often widened between 2019 and 2023. For example, the Black-white disparity in curbside detention during police stops increased from approximately 2.6 percentage points to 5.1 percentage points. Latino-white disparities in curbside detention increased from roughly 2.6 percentage points to 3.9 percentage points.

Similarly, disparities involving officer weapon involvement either remained stable or widened for some groups. Although such incidents were relatively rare, Black individuals experienced increasing disparities relative to white individuals in several agency categories.

Conclusion

The report documents substantial changes in California law enforcement activity between 2019 and 2023. Overall stop volumes declined dramatically, producing fewer police-citizen encounters and fewer opportunities for intrusive interactions. At the same time, stop decisions appear to have become more selective, as reflected by lower rates of no-enforcement stops and higher contraband discovery rates.

The evidence indicates meaningful reductions in several racial disparities, particularly in the likelihood of being stopped and in no-enforcement outcomes. The most notable improvement occurred in the Black-white police stop rate gap, which declined by more than half during the study period. Nevertheless, important disparities remain. Black and Latino Californians continue to experience higher search rates and greater levels of intrusiveness during stops than white Californians.

The study’s primary contribution lies in providing one of the most comprehensive longitudinal assessments of racial disparities in policing currently available. While the analysis documents important trends, it does not establish causality. Future research using stronger causal inference designs would help identify which policies, organizational changes, or social factors contributed to the observed reductions in some disparities and the persistence of others.