New Report Claims That Race Impacts Bloomfield Traffic Stops

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A new report is re-raising concerns about a potentially racially biased impact when it comes to traffic stops in Bloomfield.

According to the Bloomfield Information Project, an analysis of data from 2016 to 2020 showed that Bloomfield police stopped Black and Latino drivers in Bloomfield at twice the rate of white drivers. Of the 127 officers listed as having conducted stops, 13 of them were more than three times as likely to stop a Black or Latino driver than they were a white driver.

While making up less than one-fifth of the township’s population, Black drivers made up more than one-third of traffic stops, researchers said.

Read the full report here.

Director of Public Safety Samuel DeMaio called the study’s allegations “ridiculous” and said it was rehashing an inaccurate story.

The report cited DeMaio as saying the Bloomfield police department regularly reviews data to see if an officer’s motor vehicle stops are disproportionately affecting drivers of a certain race.

“We do more than any department to ensure we don’t police in a biased way,” DeMaio told Patch. “The story and the timing of it are an insult to the hardworking men and women of this department that police every day in a professional, unbiased manner.”

• See related article: Bloomfield Cops Now Using Body Cameras

Similar allegations about the Bloomfield Police Department have surfaced in the recent past.

In 2016, a group of Seton Hall law students claimed that the BPD may be "targeting" minority drivers for traffic enforcement. Bloomfield Avenue, an area of town that borders Newark and East Orange, was the site of 88 percent of traffic stops, researchers said.

The students based their claims on data they gathered while observing 70 hours of hearings and 855 ticketed individuals in Bloomfield municipal traffic court.

However, Bloomfield authorities disputed the law students' conclusions and data source. DeMaio said the department’s own data showed that Black, Latino and white drivers were being stopped at equal rates by township officers.

DeMaio also said a larger percentage of tickets are issued in the southern part of town because of higher police presence, as 75 percent of the crimes in town are committed in that area.

"That's police work 101," DeMaio told NJ.com. "If 75 percent of crime is in that part of town, that's where you put your resources."

• See related article: Are Blacks, Latinos Pulled Over More In Bloomfield? Police Deny Study's Claims

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