Officers are just as likely to pull over minorities in disproportionate numbers as they were three years ago when the city began keeping track according to new data on traffic stops.
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray admitted to the Wisconsin State Journal that he thinks racial profiling is a problem not only within the Madison Police Department but is a problem in every department of the U.S.
\The first thing you have to do is to acknowledge it as a problem,"" Wray said.
Statistics for 2004 traffic stops show that while blacks make up 6 percent of the city's population, they accounted for about 17 percent of traffic stops.
Also, Hispanics who make up about 4 percent of the population accounted for 6 percent of non-cited traffic stops.
Whites comprise 84 percent of Madison's population and accounted for 73 percent of non-cited traffic stops.
Wray said the department has wrestled with the issue for years, but over the past three years officers have been required to fill out cards with the racial information of the drivers they pull over.
""You have to understand that everyone has biases,"" Wray said.
-Wisconsin State Journal
