COMBATTING POLICE RACIAL PROFILING WHILE AVOIDING DE-POLICING

Written by John Appelbaum

Recently, in July 2023, New Jersey state troopers patrolling the state’s highways and rural roads began writing significantly less traffic tickets.¹ The following month citations plummeted by 81% compared with the prior year.² The situation has largely continued unabated to the present such that, according to the New York Times, its duration and scope "are unrivaled in modern policing, . . . ."³ The slowdown in enforcement can be tied to the release of a report finding a "large and persistent disparity" in stopping motorists and in conducting vehicle searches, applying force and in making arrests based upon race and ethnicity.⁴ Some officers and their unions felt that enforcement, which had already been subject to a consent decree, left officers vulnerable to unfair criticism justifying their actions.⁵ Not uncoincidentally, New Jersey has experienced an 18-27% spike in crashes.⁶

De-policing, frequently referred to as the "Furgeson effect," came to national attention after a police shooting of an unarmed Black man in Ferguson, Missouri touched off protests and riots making police reluctant to enforce the law.⁷ New Jersey is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. A 2017 national survey of police officers conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 72% of officers have become less willing to stop and question people they think are suspicious.⁸ Overall, 86% say police work is harder today as a result of high-profile incidents.⁹ Moreover, recent US Department of Justice statistics indicate that police-initiated contacts have fallen substantially in recent years (down 23%).¹⁰ Multiple studies have shown that officers retreat from proactive police work due to perceived scrutiny and risk.¹¹