SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (AP) - Black drivers stopped by Vermont State Police are about five times as likely to be searched as white drivers. That’s among the findings of a Northeastern University report commissioned by the state to examine police bias.
It says black drivers make up about 2 percent of those pulled over by state police, while they make up just 1 percent of the driving public.
The numbers were released at a meeting Tuesday evening of the senior command of the state police and the force’s Fair and Impartial Policing Committee. It was prepared by the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern in Boston.
Col. Matthew Birmingham, the state police director, says the agency has been working on bias issues for about a decade, but more work needs to be done.
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