Uinversity of Vermont professor Stephanie Seguino presenting her report, “Driving While Black and Brown in Vermont.” Credit: Mark Davis
Black drivers are four times more likely than white drivers to be searched by Vermont police, even though they are less likely to be found with illegal items, according to a study released Monday by University of Vermont researchers.

The investigation, which examined 2015 data from 29 police agencies covering 78 percent of Vermont’s population, found significant disparities in how often blacks and Hispanics are stopped, searched and arrested, as compared to whites and Asians.

Professor Stephanie Seguino said her study, the first to examine statewide police data, provided proof that police officers throughout the state engage in implicit bias against minorities.

“My sense is a good deal of these disparities is due to implicit bias,” Seguino said.

Black drivers were more than six times more likely than white drivers to be searched by Rutland police, more than four times by Vermont State Police, and more than three times by Burlington police, the study concluded.

But statewide, only 56 percent of black drivers searched were found with contraband, compared to 67 percent of white drivers searched.

Across the state, white and Asian drivers are stopped at rates lower than their share of the population. And black and Hispanic drivers were more likely to be ticketed than white drivers.

“The data simply prove what black and brown Vermonters have long known from hard experience: that biased policing is real in Vermont and it’s getting worse,” American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont staff attorney Lia Ernst said.

Vermont State Police Capt. Ingrid Jonas, the agency’s director of fair and impartial policing and community affairs, disputed the conclusion, and said the data could be skewed. Jonas said that her agency accidentally gave researchers, who were examining discretionary stops, information about both discretionary and non-discretionary stops, which include responses to crashes or police warrants.

Rutland Mayor Chris Louras talks with University of Vermont professor Stephanie Seguino after she presented her report “Driving While Black and Brown in Vermont.” Credit: Mark Davis
“You can’t conclude that there’s … implicit bias. It’s more complicated than it looks,” said Jonas, who noted that state police have been collecting and studying traffic data since 2010, before it was legally required.

Seguino, however, said that she did filter out non-discretionary stops. Even had some data from non-discretionary incidents been inadvertently included, Seguino said, it would not be enough to alter the conclusion that minorities were disproportionately targeted by state police and other law enforcement agencies.

“The disparities are so large, my guess is they are not going to go away,” Seguino said.

“This is not an issue that will be solved overnight,” South Burlington Police Chief Trevor Whipple said. “We need to try to understand why there are disparities. We need to make sure the biases we all have don’t influence our policing decisions.”

The study is a byproduct of a 2014 law that required police agencies to submit traffic stop and search data. Nonetheless, 20 municipal agencies either did not submit data, or submitted it in a format that was unusable, Seguino said.

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Mark Davis was a Seven Days staff writer 2013-2018.

14 replies on “Study: Vermont Police Stop, Search Black Drivers More Than Whites”

  1. It’s pretty troubling that the VSP appears to be rejecting the facts and inventing their own reality rather than trying to work to understand and address the problem.

  3. What’s “non-discretionary?” Also, what criteria are being used to do any traffic stops? I think that would be a better question.

  4. Also , um, “white-“splaining?” . Splaining? Hmmmm that sounds a little, well, hypocritical?

  5. We have great police depts in Vermont.., yes there is some bad apples as in state jobs, especially the politicians..Where are they getting the facts..from the blacks..??? I call BS on the quote “less likely to be found with illegal items, ” Think there was a lot of Bias in this so called study..
    Rutland Mayor Chris Louras and University of Vermont professor Stephanie Seguino are both bias and wouldn’t trust either one of them much less ACLU of Vermont staff attorney Lia Ernst ..Bunch of liberals ..think they know it all..That they are going to take over Vt and change it..

  6. Donna – can’t trust those blacks, can we? Or data DIRECTLY from 29 of those great police departments you speak of – it’s too bad that you think that there is bias in that data. Oh wait – isn’t that the point? The police departments themselves produced the evidence – the facts. The study highlights that data.

    Methinks thou dost protest too much. Your slip is showing.

  7. Will someone please let the liberals know that there is a drug epidemic going on in Vermont, and profiling is a part of police work. Also I wish that this story or the professors study explained what lead to the traffic stops in the first place such as speeding or a vehicle violation such as broken head or tail light. I’m sure none of these minority victims were just pulled over without some sort of violation. If they were the ACLU would be in court sueing the police constantly. Government officials and academics need to stop making up excuses that end in isms and start working on fixing the real problem that is going on in America call poverty. How about instead of wasting money on a study you take that money and create some jobs. I want to know how much Stephanie got paid for all her hard work. Thanks to all the cops that go out and try to protect the public every day.

  8. I have two questions:
    If black drivers are searched six times as often as whites and those searches are unjustified, we would expect contraband would be found far more rarely, like 80% less often. Instead, its 16% less often. Doesn’t that suggest black drivers are highly correlated with contraband?

    This study Was done three years ago and its accuracy was questioned then. Why is it being resurrected now as fresh news?

  9. Nothing like having your day enhanced by being one of “the blacks” receiving extra special scrutiny from law enforcement because, well, we are all drug dealers, aren’t we?

  11. Reubendc I’m guessing you might be black based on your comments. So I was wondering if you yourself have been stopped by a police officer in Vermont for only being black? Or have any of your encounters with police been because of a motor violation not your race? I was also wondering if you think that only white people run the drug trade? As responsible people we have to admit the criminals come in all colors but if you follow media reports you would see that much of the heroine making it into the state is coming via young black men from New York or Massachusetts. It is the polices job to stop those drugs before they hit the streets. How would you suggest that the police do their job if they don’t pull people over?

  14. The racial grievance industry has arrived in Vermont, and like some invasive animal with no natural predators, it is multiplying like crazy. a drug case was recently thrown out because pilice arrested a heavyset middle aged black man while they were looking for a burglary suspect who was a heavyset middle-aged black man. That description matches maybe .01% of the population, but to be fair, they should have broadened their search to include blonde elementary school aged girls. That’s what passes for logic in Burlington these days.

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