The pattern first raised eyebrows in 2010 when a reporter examined Fayetteville traffic stop stats and found that in 2009, police searched 1,063 vehicles of Black males versus 273 of white males.
Eight in 10 male drivers searched during traffic stops in Fayetteville, Arkansas, are Black, statistics show.
According to The Fayetteville Observer, the Fayetteville Police Department’s submission of traffic stop data to the State Bureau of Investigation demonstrates that this year, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, police searched 4.87% of the 19,915 male drivers they stopped. While U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that the city has a population that is 40.8% white and 42.5% Black, the statistics show that 81.24% of the 970 males were Black, 15.77% were white, 1.03% were Native American, 1.75% were Asian, and 0.21% were “other.”
The pattern initially raised eyebrows in October 2010, when Observer reporter Troy Williams examined Fayetteville Police Department traffic stop statistics and discovered that in 2009, police searched 1,063 vehicles of Black males compared with 273 of white males.
“Nevertheless, the statistics leave little doubt whatever the source of this conduct by police, it has a disparate and degrading impact on Blacks in our community,” Williams wrote. “When police use pretext stops as a basis to conduct roadside investigations, some criminals will be caught, but far more innocent people will likely be affected by this than the criminals.”
The controversy resulted in the resignations of City Manager Dale Iman and Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine in 2012, as well as a temporary policy change to written consent searches and a brief halt on verbal consent searches.
According to The Observer, statistics in February 2021 revealed that Black drivers were still being stopped and searched at disproportionate rates in Fayetteville — and some residents believe the situation has worsened.
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However, Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle “Kem” Braden, who has worked for the city’s Police Department since 1996, defended the data and said he does not believe his officers are racially biased. He asserted that officers only search cars during stops when they get the driver’s consent or have probable cause.
SBI traffic stop data shows that the Fayetteville Police Department conducted 78 consent searches, 1,249 searches based on probable cause, 29 protective frisk searches, 132 searches incident to an arrest, and six searches resulting from the service of an outstanding warrant from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30. The statistics do not differentiate between people searched based on their race or ethnicity, which Braden cited as proof that the department’s practices have no hidden motive.
He added that it is only possible to discern a driver’s race once an officer pulls over the vehicle. “Why?” he added. “Because the car is moving too fast, it’s at too great of a distance, and you won’t generally know that information until you get behind the car and have the opportunity to pull it over.”
However, Xzia Edwards, 38, who has lived in Fayetteville his entire life, said his own experiences contradict what the chief claims. Edwards estimates he has been pulled over by Fayetteville Police Department officers at least 50 times.
He said he refuses to drive at night for fear of being stopped by those tasked with protecting the city’s residents, and emphasized the importance of knowing one’s rights during a traffic stop.
“As a Black man, it’s traumatizing,” Edwards said, The Observer reported. “I tell my wife, sometimes I’m afraid to even get in a vehicle with someone else because you never know what’s going to happen. You never know what’s going to happen getting stopped by Fayetteville police.”
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