Minorities are more likely to be searched by police.

 Fayetteville, NC -  A trial lawyers task force has studied a decade's worth of law enforcement traffic stops in North Carolina and found that blacks and Hispanics are "systematically searched at much higher rates than whites."

The N.C. Advocates for Justice, formerly the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, analyzed almost 13.5 million traffic stop records covering a period from 2000 to mid-2011.

In a report this spring, the authors called their findings "deeply disturbing and may be indicative of a problem." They have called for the creation of a broad-based state commission to study the causes of the racial disparities at traffic stops and make recommendations.

The comprehensive report is a first of its kind in North Carolina, but not many state officials are aware of it.

The report was sent to only a half dozen of the state's top leaders, including Gov. Bev Perdue and state Attorney General Roy Cooper. No legislators from Cumberland County were aware of the report's existence until a reporter contacted them this week.

The Fayetteville Observer obtained a copy of the report's summary and analysis from a source at the N.C. General Assembly on the condition of anonymity.

Among other findings, the report said blacks and Hispanics are "almost twice as likely to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested" as white drivers.
http://www.news-record.com/node/146486

 North Carolina Advocates for Justice: Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Bias Executive Summary: http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/papers/NCAJ_Exec_Summary.pdf

Vera Institute -  Do Race and Ethnicity Matter in Prosecution? A Review of Empirical Studies report:
http://www.vera.org/files/race-and-ethnicity-in-prosecution-first-edition.pdf