Racial Disparities in the Discretionary Context of Traffic Stops: How Organizational Practices Shape Institutional Interactions

Abstract

Traffic stops are common and consequential for citizens’ legal socialization and for racial gaps in police-community trust. Efforts to change the tenor of police interactions, however, may discount the discretionary context of stops—the degree of choice in the decision to stop a driver—and how organizations influence those circumstances. Discretionary stops entail more choice and thus create more ambiguity for the driver regarding the officer's intent. We examine racial disparities in the discretionary context of traffic stops, their disparate influence on community members’ impressions, and the power of departmental guidance to close them. We find that stops of Black (vs. White) drivers are more likely to be for high-discretion equipment violations, and Black community members evaluate recordings of high-discretion, but not low-discretion, stops more negatively than White participants. At the same time, we find promising evidence that organizational directives to curtail equipment stops can reduce this disparity.