Racial profiling by the LAPD. Racial profiling is a term used to describe any police action that relies on ethnicity rather than behavior to target suspects engaged in criminal activities. Does the Los Angeles Police Department

(LAPD) invoke racial profiling in stops and searches of Los Angeles drivers? This question was addressed in Chance (Spring 2006).

a. Data on stops and searches of both African-Americans LO3 and white drivers over a six-month period are summarized in the accompanying table. Conduct a test (at a = .05)

to determine whether there is a disparity in the proportions of African-American and white drivers who are searched by the LAPD after being stopped.

Race Number Stopped Number Searched Number of “Hits”

African-American 61,688 12,016 5,134 White 106,892 5,312 3,006 Based on Khadjavi, L. S. “Driving while black in the City of Angels.”

Chance, Vol. 19, No. 2, Spring 2006 (Tables 1 and 2), pp. 43–46.

b. The LAPD defines a “hit rate” as the proportion of searches that result in a discovery of criminal activity. Use the data in the table to estimate the disparity in the hit rates for African-American and white drivers under a 95%

confidence interval. Interpret the results.