Racial bias in motor vehicle searches: Theory and evidence

Police checking for illegal drugs are much more likely to search the vehicl es of African-American motorists than those of white motorists. This paper develops a model of police and motorist behavior that suggests an empirical test for distinguishing whether this disparity is due to racial prejudice or to the police's objective to maximize arrests. When applied to vehicle s earch data from Maryland, our test results are consistent with the hypothes is of no racial prejudice against African-American motorists. However, if p olice have utility only for searches yielding large drug finds, then our an alysis would suggest bias against white drivers. The model's prediction reg arding nonrace characteristics is also largely supported by the data.