What was the percentage of black to white people police stops for loitering

1. No single national “black vs white loitering‑stop” percentage exists in these sources

None of the provided materials report a single, national percentage explicitly showing the share of loitering stops of Black people versus White people. The sources instead offer studies and datasets that document patterns of racial disparity in specific jurisdictions, in traffic stops broadly, and in enforcement of low‑level offenses that include loitering ^{[1] [3] [2]}. Available sources do not mention a U.S.‑wide percentage comparing Black and White loitering stops.

2. Local studies show extreme disparities in low‑level offense enforcement

The ACLU’s 2015 New Jersey analysis found very large local disparities: in one city, Black people were 9.6 times more likely than White people to be arrested for a set of low‑level offenses that included loitering, marijuana possession under 50 grams, trespass, and disorderly conduct ^[2]. The Sentencing Project documents that prosecutorial and policing choices—such as renewed citationing for loitering and panhandling—drive local increases in enforcement of such offenses and can widen racial disparities ^[1].

3. Broader policing data confirms racial gaps in stops that provide context

Large national projects focused on traffic and pedestrian stops find persistent racial disparities in who is stopped and searched. The Stanford Open Policing Project and academic analyses of millions of stops find statistically significant disparities in traffic stops and in search thresholds by race, signaling systemic patterns that would affect how loitering and other discretionary stops are enforced ^{[3] [4]}. The Public Policy Institute of California’s traffic‑stop work and PNAS/Nature research underline that interpreting stop rates requires careful denominators—who is present in an area or on the road matters—but disparities persist after many controls ^{[5] [6] [4]}.

4. Methodological limits matter when comparing stop rates by race

Researchers caution against naïve comparisons of stop counts to overall population shares: the appropriate denominator is who was available to be stopped (drivers on a road, pedestrians in a place, people engaged in a behavior), not the entire city population ^{[7] [3]}. The recent Crime Science article and Public Policy Institute work stress that differences in exposure, time of day, and policing deployment can bias raw ratios and must be adjusted for in rigorous studies ^{[7] [5]}.

5. Enforcement discretion concentrates racial disparities in “crimes of poverty”

Reports argue that loitering, panhandling, public intoxication, and similar low‑level offenses are areas where officer discretion is high; that discretion produces disproportionate enforcement in marginalized neighborhoods and against Black people ^{[1] [2]}. The Sentencing Project links political pressure, prosecutorial choices, and police union lobbying to renewed policing of these low‑level offenses—an implicit agenda that can drive racially skewed outcomes ^[1].

6. Competing interpretations and what each implies for the loitering question

One interpretation: raw arrest/stop counts show disproportionate police attention to Black people in loitering and related offenses ^[2]. Alternative, methodologicalist critiques emphasize that without correct denominators (who was present or engaged in the behavior) and controls for policing intensity, raw percentages can overstate bias ^{[7] [3]}. Both perspectives appear in the sources: empirical studies documenting disparities and methodological papers warning how to interpret stop rates ^{[3] [7]}.

7. What a careful answer would require and recommended next steps

To produce the exact “percentage of Black to White people police stops for loitering” you need jurisdiction‑level stop data that (a) disaggregates stops by reason (loitering), (b) records race, and (c) supplies a defensible denominator (people present/exposed). The provided sources point to local ACLU and academic datasets as starting points ^{[2] [3]}. I recommend obtaining municipal arrest/stop records or studies for the specific city or agency in question and then applying the denominator and control approaches described in the methodological literature ^{[7] [3]}.

Limitations: available sources document disparities and methods but do not supply a single national percentage comparing Black and White loitering stops; claims above cite only the provided reporting and studies ^{[1] [2] [3] [7]}.