SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new report released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California alleges the Sacramento Police Department disproportionately stopped and searched Black and Latino drivers for low-level traffic violations that often had little connection to public safety, raising renewed concerns about racial profiling and so-called “pretext” traffic stops.
The report, titled “Driving While Black and Brown: The Case for Banning Racially Biased Traffic Stops in Sacramento,” analyzed Sacramento Police Department traffic stop data from 2023 and 2024 collected under California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act, commonly known as RIPA.
According to the report, Black residents accounted for 33% of all Sacramento police traffic stops despite making up only 12% of the city’s population. The ACLU found Black drivers were “3.1 times more likely to be stopped than white drivers.”
The report also found that more than 70% of traffic stops involving Black drivers were for equipment violations or non-moving violations such as expired registration, missing license plates, or window obstructions — violations the report argues have little relationship to traffic safety.
“Targeting Black and Latino drivers for minor violations like tinted windows is basically stop-and-frisk for driving,” said Carlos Montes-Ponce, senior organizer at the ACLU of Northern California.
“While pretext stops have a negligible impact on public safety, they can have deadly consequences for people of color,” Montes-Ponce added. “Sacramento should follow the lead of cities like San Francisco and Berkeley that have restricted enforcement of non-moving traffic violations.”
The ACLU report argues Sacramento police routinely use non-safety-related traffic violations as a “pretext” to investigate unrelated criminal activity, even when officers lack reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
“Police often use non-safety related traffic violations as a ‘pretext’ to look for evidence of criminal activity when they don’t have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or probable cause for a search,” the report states. “Since officers have wide discretion to enforce low-level violations, racial bias can play a part in their decisions.”
The report examined 46,076 traffic stops conducted by Sacramento police during the two-year period, including 21,972 stops in 2023 and 24,104 stops in 2024.
Of those stops, the most common alleged violations were “No Registration” at 29%, “Display Plates/Tags” at 18%, and “Failure to Stop at Limit Line” at 17%.
The report found Black drivers were overrepresented in stops involving “window obstruction,” missing registration, and display plate issues — categories the ACLU characterizes as discretionary enforcement unrelated to urgent traffic safety concerns.
Latino drivers were also disproportionately represented in certain categories. According to the report, Latino drivers made up 38% of all stops for alleged window obstruction violations, despite representing 28% of total stops overall.
The ACLU linked those findings to a prior review conducted by Sacramento’s Office of Public Safety Accountability.
“The office’s review of SPD misconduct complaint cases over a two-year period revealed that police only stopped Black and Latino motorists for tinted windows,” the report states.
The report also found significant racial disparities in vehicle searches.
According to the analysis, Sacramento police conducted 5,399 searches during traffic stops between 2023 and 2024. Black drivers were searched at a rate of 17%, compared to 8% for white drivers, while Latino drivers were searched at a rate of 12%.
The report states Black drivers were “2.1 times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than a white driver,” while Latino drivers were “1.5 times more likely.”
The disparities were most pronounced during stops for equipment violations and non-moving violations, categories where officers possess broad discretion.
“By race, search rates were the most disparate for drivers searched due to non-moving violations and equipment violations; two categories where enforcement is most discretionary and least directly related to traffic safety,” the report states.
Despite the elevated search rates, the report found searches rarely uncovered contraband or weapons.
“In 2023-2024, 90% of all searches conducted by SPD during a traffic stop resulted in no items seized,” the report states.
The report specifically highlighted stops involving expired registration.
“The most common alleged violation for a traffic stop in 2023-2024 was expired or missing registration,” the report states. “For ‘No Registration,’ 11,246 people were stopped, and 3,565 people were subjected to a stop without ultimately receiving any warning, citation, or arrest.”
“Of those 11,246 people stopped for ‘No Registration’ in this two year period, only 79 stops resulted in drugs seized and 22 resulted in a firearm seized.”
The report further found that more than one-third of stops involving window obstruction or display plate violations resulted in no warning, citation, or arrest.
Across all traffic stops, 28% ended with no warning, citation, or arrest.
Black drivers experienced the highest “no result” rate at 32%, according to the report. Latino drivers had a 28% no-result rate, compared to 26% for white drivers.
At the same time, the report found Black drivers received citations at lower rates than white drivers despite being stopped and searched more often.
“White drivers had the highest share of citations relative to their share of stopped population,” the report states. “Black drivers were underrepresented in citations relative to their share of the stopped population.”
“Black drivers had the lowest rate of citations despite being stopped and searched more than all other racial groups by the Sacramento Police Department.”
The ACLU argued the findings demonstrate a systemic pattern of racially disparate policing practices.
“These findings are damning and paint a clear picture that the Sacramento Police Department is using minor traffic violations as pretext to stop and search Black and Latino drivers,” the report states.
The ACLU called on Sacramento officials to prohibit officers from initiating stops for many low-level equipment and non-moving violations.
“Sacramento should adopt a policy that prohibits its police department from conducting many of the above-listed stops and searches due to their demonstrated use as a pretext to stop and search Black and Brown drivers for reasons unrelated to the stop and provide little to no traffic safety benefits,” the report states.
The debate over pretext stops has intensified across California in recent years as lawmakers and civil rights advocates push to limit police discretion in traffic enforcement.
The ACLU noted that cities including San Francisco and Berkeley have already adopted reforms limiting certain low-level traffic stops. According to the organization, San Francisco experienced a 10% decline in the share of Black drivers stopped for non-moving violations after implementing reforms.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles City Council also voted to advance policies aimed at limiting racially disparate pretext stops.
The Sacramento report argues such reforms could reduce racial disparities while allowing police resources to focus on serious traffic safety concerns.
“These disparate traffic stops result in disparate searches that have very little likelihood of finding contraband and low levels resulting action (e.g. citation or arrest),” the report states. “This pattern and practice of racially disproportionate stops and searches by SPD is a violation of civil rights laws and the core constitutional principle of equal protection under the law.”
“It is also a wasteful use of City resources and police officers’ time,” the report continues. “These biased traffic stops and searches do not directly improve traffic safety and continue the shameful legacy of racial profiling and its deadly consequences in the United States.”
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” . . . disproportionately stopped and searched Black and Latino drivers for low-level traffic violations that often had little connection to public safety, raising renewed concerns about racial profiling and so-called “pretext” traffic stops.”
The probable cause being that (on average), “black and Latino drivers” are disproportionately represented in regard to traffic/vehicle violations.
Simple solution – get your g*damn car fixed – like the “rest of us” do. I don’t want anyone driving around with expired registration, lack of smog checks, lights not functioning, illegally-tinted windows, etc. You don’t get a “pass” on those things due to your skin color. And any organization which tries to make that an issue (rather than the actual problem) is an enemy of public safety, air quality, etc. Not to mention race-baiting.
Also, entirely “missing license plates” – really? I hope they IMMEDIATELY stop anyone for that. Needless to say, that’s an invitation to commit more serious, purposeful crimes.