Study: Blacks stopped disproportionately by deputies in more than half of S.C. counties

By Rick Brundrett - Rick Brundrett

COLUMBIA -- Sheriff's deputies disproportionately stop and warn black drivers in more than half of South Carolina's counties, an analysis of records by The State newspaper has found.

Law enforcement officials in those counties, including Richland and Lexington, say the numbers do not mean their officers are deliberately targeting drivers because of their race -- a practice commonly called racial profiling.

State troopers -- the target of scrutiny in the wake of recent racially charged allegations about how they treat black motorists -- stopped and warned black drivers at roughly the same rate as the state's black population.

"When you put all of the numbers together and all of the incidents together," Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said, "you won't find a systemic pattern of misconduct or discrimination."

Lonnie Randolph, president of the state NAACP, said, though, racial profiling remains a "major concern" of his organization.

"Racism is still a problem in America and in South Carolina," he said. "We cannot deny it."

Public Safety director James Schweitzer and Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark resigned under fire Feb. 29 after Gov. Mark Sanford said they were too lenient on a white trooper shown on a videotape using a racial slur against a fleeing black suspect during a 2004 traffic stop in Greenwood County.

The U.S. attorney for South Carolina, the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Law Enforcement Division have launched investigations into possible civil rights violations stemming from that incident and others caught on videotape -- including two in which troopers struck suspects fleeing on foot with their patrol vehicles.

Under a law that took effect in July, all police agencies must report to the Department of Public Safety the race, gender and age of all drivers who are stopped and issued warnings but not given tickets or arrested.

State Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, the author of the reporting law, said he pushed for the reporting requirements as part of the law mandating drivers to wear seat belts after hearing concerns that minorities routinely were being "stopped, searched and never ticketed."

The State newspaper obtained the Department of Public Safety's database -- the first release of the information -- under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.

The newspaper analyzed information on 317,678 drivers who were stopped by 191 public police agencies statewide from July 1 through Feb. 1. The paper then compared sheriff's departments' data on the racial makeup of stopped drivers to the state's population and Department of Motor Vehicle records.

Among the findings:

• In at least 25 of 46 counties, or 54 percent -- including Richland, Lexington and Kershaw -- sheriff's deputies stopped black drivers at rates higher than their counties' black populations.

• Of the 4,861 drivers stopped by Richland County sheriff's deputies, 3,186, or about 66 percent, were black -- about 19 percentage points higher than the county's 47 percent black population. That was the biggest such gap for any sheriff's department in the state that issued at least 100 warnings during the period.

• The Lexington County Sheriff's Department wasn't far behind. Of the 6,002 drivers stopped during the period, 1,660, or about 28 percent, were black. That was double the county's 14 percent black population rate.

• In Kershaw County, of the 430 drivers sheriff's deputies stopped, 147, or 34 percent, were black. That was about 8 percentage points higher than the county's 26 percent black population.

• Statewide, 33 percent of the 317,678 drivers stopped were black -- slightly higher than the state's black population rate of 29 percent.

• State troopers -- the target of scrutiny in the wake of recent racially charged allegations about how they treat black motorists -- stopped and warned black drivers at roughly the same rate as the state's 29 percent black population rate.