The Commerce Police Department released its 2018 Racial Profiling Report last week, and the numbers paint a mostly even picture of who gets stopped by city officers.
According to the report, white drivers made up about 58 percent of the stops Commerce officers made in 2018. Meanwhile black drivers made up about a quarter of those stopped.
While there is no data on how many Commerce residents were stopped last year, compared to those just passing through town, those racial percentages are close to the racial makeup of the city. According to the U.S. Census, a little less than 60 percent of Commerce’s population is white and a little less than a quarter is African-American.
However, male drivers were far more likely to get pulled over in Commerce. Males make up a little less than half the city’s population. But they were 60 percent of the drivers Commerce officers stopped in 2018.
