A three-year review of traffic stop data in Cedar Rapids is expected to begin in the coming months, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz told the Cedar Rapids City Council at the end of Tuesday’s meeting.
An independent academic research team will review unanalyzed traffic stop data from 2021, 2022 and 2023. The analysis will look at various aspects of traffic stops, including “disproportionality in tickets, arrests and searches,” Pomeranz said.
The city allocated $30,000 in the fiscal year 2022 budget for the traffic stop analysis. That budget, which was approved earlier this year, goes into effect on July 1. Pomeranz said the city is going to try to start the review “a little earlier.”
“This is all designed and will be executed to assure that we continue our commitment of fairness and the way we enforce the laws. In this case, the traffic laws of the city of Cedar Rapids,” Pomeranz said, adding that the Cedar Rapids Police Department and Chief Wayne Jerman are supportive of the initiative.
CRPD spokesperson Greg Buelow told Little Village in an email that the review will include:
• A comparison of police stop percentages to an observational and U.S. census baseline
• An analysis of post-stop outcomes using logistic regression to look for disproportionality in tickets, arrests and searches
• An analysis of individual officers using odds ratios
• An analysis of individual officers’ traffic stop disproportionality
Research published last May by the Stanford Open Policing Project found that Black drivers were 20 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers, relative to their share of the residential population. The researchers used a dataset of nearly 100 million traffic stops across the country.
The study also found that once Black drivers were stopped, they were almost twice as likely to be searched as someone who is white, despite Black drivers being less likely than white drivers to carry drugs, guns or other contraband.
Buelow said CR Research Group LC will be conducting the analysis and the team will be led by Christopher Barnum. Barnum is a professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport and also the director of the university’s master’s program in criminal justice.
Barnum has also reviewed traffic stop data in Iowa City, Davenport, Coralville and North Liberty.
“The academic research team has professional experience in studying racial disparity in police traffic stops and would review the police department’s traffic stop data,” Buelow said. “Besides ensuring that officers are engaged in unbiased traffic enforcement, the study would help the chief and police commanders take appropriate action if and when disparities are detected.”
An expert in bias issues urged state leaders last year to expand the data Iowa collects of traffic stops and then make this data public.
Arthur Rizer, who worked for the Washington D.C.-based public policy research organization R Street Institute, said data is important to battling bias and can lead to increased transparency and trust. He also emphasized it is important to do something with that data.
“Data collection alone is just a passive response to bias, and it really doesn’t have any direct impact beyond telling us what we should know,” Rizer said. “The demographic data must be collected, and then used.”
Locally, the Advocates for Social Justice have been requesting this data. Members on the city’s independent citizen review board will have the ability to review quarterly reports from the chief, which will include traffic stop and arrest data divided by race and ethnicity.
