By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Police in Connecticut are still stopping black and Hispanic drivers at disproportionately high rates, according to traffic stop data released Tuesday. Black drivers constitute 14.1 percent of drivers pulled over by police in all law enforcement agencies in the state from Oct. 1, 2014, through March 31, while 12.3 percent of drivers who were stopped were Hispanic, according to the data. About 8 percent of Connecticut’s population is black and 9.7 percent is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentages of traffic stops of minorities were slightly higher than those from the same six-month period last year, when 13.7 percent of traffic stops involved black drivers and 12.0 percent involved Hispanic drivers. Police also were more likely to search the cars of black and Hispanic drivers than those of whites. Six percent of black drivers and 6 percent of Hispanic drivers who were pulled over saw their vehicles searched, compared with 3 percent of whites. The data also appear to show little or no racial disparities in driver arrests. One percent of black drivers stopped and 2 percent of Hispanic drivers pulled over were arrested, compared with 1 percent […]
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