The board recommended the change after data showed that people officers perceived as Black were more than twice as likely to be stopped as their percentage of the population would suggest.
Black adults in Long Beach accounted for 36% of all citations for “Walking on Roadway,” or jaywalking, which was the city’s most common citation.
Of the 855 Metro and bus riders who came into contact with Long Beach police in 2109 for failing to pay their tickets on public transportation, 62% were Black.
One shady character, the police noted, was 120 years old, and if you saw a 120-year-old man driving down Seventh Street, no doubt with his left-turn blinker on for the last three miles, you’d pull him over too.
Despite making up only about 13% of Long Beach’s population, Black motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists made up 24% of the LBPD’s traffic stops in 2019.
The Post newsroom staff has worked hundreds of hours interpreting the data, validating information with mathematicians and statisticians, interviewing elected leaders and policing experts, and confirming information with the LBPD.
