Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

Observational studies were pioneered in the United States to provide statisticalinformation for court cases challenging ethnic profiling on state highways. In a landmarkcase, a New Jersey court relied on statistical evidence obtained through an observationalstudy of drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike to determine that the New JerseyState Police were engaging in ethnic profiling. 162 The study revealed that although only13.5 percent of all drivers on the highway were black, blacks constituted 37.4 percentof those stopped; that is, black people were 4.85 times more likely to be stopped thanwhites. Observational analysis is now widely accepted in the United States as a reliabletool for measuring ethnic profiling. Court cases in the US using observational studieshave established a threshold for determining when ethnic profiling is taking place. Ifstops are being conducted equally against all ethnic groups, the ratios would be 1.0, indicatingthat blacks are no more likely to be stopped that whites. Odds ratios between 1.0and 1.5 are most likely benign but when the odds ratio is greater than 1.5 it is likely thatethnic profiling is taking place and ethnic groups are being targeted for police stops. 163It is important to bear in mind that observational studies are expensive to conductand have never been used to provide trend analysis (which would require repeatedstudies at set intervals of time to illustrate changes in police practices), create annualstatistics, or as a basis for ongoing monitoring of policies designed to reduce ethnicprofiling. Rather, they provide an important snapshot for determining disproportionalityat a given time and place. The following three case studies show how observationalstudies have been used to measure the extent of ethnic profiling when ethnic data werenot available.RUSSIAEthnic Profiling in the Moscow MetroIn 2006, the Open Society Justice Initiative, in partnership with JURIX and LamberthConsulting, undertook an observational study of ethnic profiling by the police in theMoscow Metro system. 164 Stations where observers could clearly monitor stops wereselected for observation. Monitors were trained to visually categorize people intosimple ethnic categories (“Slavs,” “minorities” and “other”). Observers monitoredspecific locations at randomly selected days and recorded a benchmark of 33,760persons at those locations. Finally, monitors observed police stops, recording ethnicity,sex and age. Where possible, individuals stopped by the police were interviewed by theobservers to determine their perceptions of the encounter with the police.88 ETHNIC MONITORING AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DATA-GATHERING