Benicia Police Department officers were 5.7 times more likely to stop Black people than white people based on stops per 10,000 residents. Officers stopped people 4,283 times in 2023.
Passed in 2015, the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) required California police agencies to submit detailed data on every stop their officers made to the California Department of Justice. The law was intended to end identity-based profiling. It also created the RIPA board, which releases an annual report analyzing the data law enforcement agencies submit.
RIPA requires law enforcement officers to document information on every person they stop, including the individual’s race, gender and other identity attributes. Because the data is based on officers’ perceptions, this demographic data may not reflect how a person actually identifies. The data includes all stops officers make, such as traffic stops (the majority) and pedestrian stops.
The Benicia Police Department has reported this detailed data to the state since 2022. The data below reveals significant disparities in stop rates and, crucially, in whether the stops lead to an enforcement action like an arrest. These differences have fueled a growing debate over whether to end a police practice known as pretextual stops, in which officers use relatively minor infractions — often traffic violations — to probe for guns, drugs and other larger crimes.
Racial disparities in traffic stops are likely the result of many factors, including differences across groups in driving frequency and behavior, the level of police presence in that group’s community, and racial profiling. The degree to which racial profiling causes disparities in stops is disputed, though most research suggests bias plays some role. In a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Black adults said they believed they had been unfairly stopped by police because of their race.
Benicia Black Lives Matter to host fourth annual Juneteenth celebration at Benicia Public Library
BBLM’s 2023 Juneteenth celebration at the Benicia Veteran’s Hall. This year, the event will take place at the Benicia Public Library. | Photo by Amira Barger.
Benicia Black Lives Matter is hosting a Juneteenth Celebration at the Benicia Public Library on Saturday, June 15th, from 12 to 5 pm.
Juneteenth – which falls on June 19 but will be celebrated on the 15th here in Benicia – was finally recognized as a national holiday in 2021.
The flyer / poster follows – feel free to print/post/share/distribute. (Click for full size jpg image.)
Click for full size jpg image.
[ BBLM’s Juneteenth celebration was originally going to take place at the Veteran’s Hall but was moved to the Benicia Public Library. A save-the-date post from May 17 was updated to reflect the change in the event venue.]
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