Area law enforcement agencies stopped black motorists at a disproportionately higher rate than white motorists in 2017, according to a report by the Missouri Attorney General's Office.

Area officials say the data doesn't capture the entire picture; they add they pull over motorists for violations, not skin color.

The report, which analyzes traffic stops of police departments and county sheriff's departments statewide, has been issued annually since 2000.

The report compares traffic-stop figures to the demographic composition of the driving-age population in cities and counties, based on the 2010 Census.

Disparity-index values higher than 1 indicate disproportionately high stop rates. Statewide, the disparity index value for white drivers was .93 while for black drivers, it was 1.72, according to the Attorney General's report.

Statewide, black motorists were 85 percent more likely to be pulled over by police than whites, the highest level in the 18 years the state has compiled the data, The Associated Press reported.

Black drivers who were stopped were 1.51 times more likely to be searched or their vehicles searched than white motorists statewide, the report said.

Black motorists were 1.69 times more likely to be searched than whites stopped in the city of Cape Girardeau, and three times more in Jackson, Scott City and Cape Girardeau County, according to the report.

Black motorists account for 10.9 percent of the driving-age population in Missouri, but 18.7 percent of all traffic stops, the attorney general's report said.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department's disparity index value was 2.16 for black motorists, the highest it has been since 2004. For white motorists, the value was .87, the same as last year, according to the report. For white motorists, the disparity number remains the lowest it has been since the state began collecting the traffic-stop data.

According to the findings, black drivers were 2.48 times more likely than whites to be stopped by Cape Girardeau police last year.

But Cape Girardeau police public information officer Rick Schmidt said the data can be confusing. "We stop cars for violations," he said, adding those stops are not based on the skin color of the driver.

Statewide, officers annually undergo anti-bias training, he said.

The disparity index numbers take into account the city's driving-age population but not that of out-of-town drivers, who are among those motorists stopped by police, Schmidt said.

"We are an interstate city. We are a retail hub," he said, explaining that Cape Girardeau daily has a large number of out-of-town drivers on its streets.

In 2017, Cape Girardeau made 7,465 traffic stops. The vast majority of stopped drivers -- 5,405 -- were white. Police pulled over 1,730 black motorists, according to the report.

Based on those figures, Schmidt said he sees no cause for alarm. "If it (black motorists stopped) was a much higher number than that" there would be cause for concern, he said.

By comparison, Jackson police pulled over 3,805 motorists last year, including 3,531 white drivers. Only 178 of the stopped drivers were black, according to the report.

But Jackson's disparity index was 2.84 for blacks, compared to a value of .97 for whites, The findings show black drivers were 2.9 times more likely than whites to be stopped by Jackson police last year.

Jackson police Capt, Scott Eakers said, regardless of the disparity index, officers stop vehicles for violations regardless of the race of the driver. Eakers said typically there is "no way you can tell who is driving the car" before officers pull over the vehicle.

The data, he said, doesn't "portray the true picture." He added, "Most of the stops are traffic related."

For the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, the disparity number was 1.37 for black motorists compared to 1 for white motorists, according to the report. According to those numbers, black motorists were 37 percent more likely to be pulled over by sheriff's officers than white drivers.

The report said the sheriff's department stopped 2,202 motorists last year. Blacks accounted for only 184 of those stops. A total of 1,978 white drivers were pulled over in 2017, the data shows.

Sgt. Sean Adams of the sheriff's department said, "We don't pull people over based on race." Adams said officers stop motorists because of violations.

Adams said the state data does not take into account whether the stopped motorists are residents of that jurisdiction or from some other area. But the Missouri Attorney General's Office has announced plans to collect and include such information in future reports, Adams said.

The Scott City Police Department had a disparity number of 13.69 for black motorists compared to .93 for whites. According to those calculations, black motorists were 14.7 times more likely to be stopped by Scott City officers than white drivers in 2017.

But Lt. Mike Cullers of the Scott City department said the disparity numbers are misleading, largely because the small Scott County community has few black residents. In addition, its boundaries include a mile a half stretch of Interstate 55, which brings a large number of motorists, including black drivers, in contact with the city, Cullers said.

"We see a violation, not a driver," he said. "The majority of our stops are speed related."

According to the report, Scott City officers conducted 1,311 vehicle stops last year. The vast majority -- 1,180 -- involved white drivers. Police stopped 117 black motorists, the report said.

Cullers said he sees the merits of an annual report on traffic stops. "The principle behind the concept is solid," he said. "However, it is all about how you look at the data."

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641