5 things you need to know about the 'driving while Black' issue in Fayetteville

The Fayetteville Observer analyzed data that included hundreds of thousands of traffic stops and searches for a series of stories focusing on a controversy that caused an uproar in the community a decade ago.

The “driving while Black” issue, which deals with a racial disparity among the drivers who are stopped and searched by officers, has gotten attention again. Some in the community noticed that statistics that had improved have gotten worse in recent years.

Here are five things you need to know about the issue:

Police patrol neighborhoods based on crime data, resident complaints

Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins, who has been on the job about 3 1/2 years, says her officers have one directive: “Go do your job.”

Hawkins, the first minority to serve in the permanent position of police chief for the city, says department data show that officers make most traffic stops on highly traveled roads. Officers do not take race into account when they are stopping a vehicle, she said, and often cannot even tell a driver’s race until a vehicle has been pulled over.

Hawkins said that since she has been chief, police officers patrol certain neighborhoods based on crime and traffic complaints from residents, as well as crime data.

Modest improvements enough?: Racial disparity in traffic stops, searches by Fayetteville police draws scrutiny

The Talk

The driving while Black issue is so well known in the Black community that parents often teach their teenagers what to do if they get stopped by a police officer. The ritual is known as “the talk.”

Sonny Kelly, former director of operations and programs at Fayetteville Urban Ministry, puts on a one-man show based on the practice. The show is called “The Talk.” In it, Kelly speaks as if he is talking to his 7-year-old son about racial issues like profiling.

The Talk: Black families teach their children what to do if stopped by police

Increase in searches of Black drivers 'not enormous'

A professor who wrote a book that focused on race and policing after studying data from 20 million traffic stops analyzed data from the Fayetteville Police Department.

Frank Baumgartner, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that since Hawkins became police chief in 2017, the data has shown a slight uptick in the number of Black drivers searched during traffic stops. But the increase, he said, is "not enormous."

Is the imbalance troubling?: Stops and searches by Fayetteville police scrutinized by author who studies the issue

People of color 'are policed differently'

Tyler Whittenberg, chief counsel for justice system reform with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said that when police officers spend more time in neighborhoods, they make more arrests there.

“Your policing tactics have created high crime areas,” he said. “That gives you the excuse to go back.”

Whittenberg said his organization tracks data for traffic stops and searches in North Carolina and several other states.

“It shows what we already knew,” he said. “Black and brown people are policed differently.”

Previous leadership:Fayetteville police chief who drew national attention for reform is still at it

It's not just Fayetteville

The Observer didn’t just look at records involving the Fayetteville Police Department. The paper analyzed traffic stop and search data from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments in Hope Mills and Spring Lake.

The percentages of Black drivers stopped and searched by officers from the three agencies vary from year to year, state records show. The police chiefs in Hope Mills and Spring Lake and a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office say they are confident that their law enforcement agencies treat drivers fairly.

By the numbers: Here's what the data on police stops and searches in Cumberland, Hope Mills, Spring Lake show

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Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.