A 2001 Syracuse ordinance mandates the collection of data on stops, and the Common Council has twice commissioned analyses of the data, first in 2006 and again in 2010 – studies that relied on an approach known as the “outcome test.” Skeptical about the utility of the outcome test in analyzing the Syracuse data, Institute researchers proposed to conduct an analysis using the “veil-of-darkness” method, an approach devised by researchers at the RAND Corporation. Analyzing vehicle stops in the “inter-twilight” period – the times of day when it might be light or dark, depending on the time of year – the Institute tested to see whether African-Americans were more likely to be stopped during daylight, when drivers’ race can be more readily determined by officers, than in darkness. Finding no consistent differences between stops in daylight and stops in darkness, the Institute’s analysis detected no persuasive evidence of racial bias in stops.
Reports and Publications
Robert E. Worden, Sarah J. McLean, and Andrew Wheeler (2010). Stops by Syracuse Police. Report to the Syracuse Police Department. Albany, NY: John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety, Inc.
Robert E. Worden, Sarah J. McLean and Andrew P. Wheeler (2012). “Testing for Racial Profiling with the Veil-of-Darkness Method,” Police Quarterly 15 (March): 92-111. (Published on-line January 8, 2012; doi 10.1177/1098611111433027.)