From Racial Profiling to Racial Equality Rethinking Equity in Police Stops and Searches

Police departments across the country have come under scrutiny for racial bias in their stops and searches, but it is impossible to know whether the distribution of stops and searches is inequitable without first analyzing what equity requires of the police in this area. This paper provides that analysis in order to develop a normative foundation for empirical research. I first consider the legal definition of equity, which insists that police must be colorblind, but I reject that definition as too narrow after showing that colorblind practices can be inequitable. I then draw on normative principles from social theory to defend an alternative definition of equity that calls for equal burdens across racial and ethnic groups within morally homogenous groups. (For example, the risk that an innocent person will be stopped or searched should be equal across racial and ethnic groups). Finally, I illustrate the implication of this definition for empirical research by reanalyzing street stop data in New York City, and I consider its possible applications in several other contexts as well. In that way, the paper offers a general theory of equity in policing by calling attention to a neglected dimension of that ideal. In the process, it illustrates the significance of normative inquiry for empirical sociology.