ACLU report: Riverside County sheriff's traffic stops waste time and don't address crime

In light of Riverside County's growing budget for policing and an ongoing state attorney general investigation of Sheriff Chad Bianco's department, two criminal justice reform groups say the sheriff's department's own data proves its approach to policing isn’t paying off.

The ACLU of Southern California and Catalyst California, two advocacy groups, argue in a new report that data shows the department’s deputies are spending the vast majority of their time and the public's money on traffic stops for minor offenses that are not addressing the county’s most pressing public safety concerns.

Bianco has asked for, and largely been given, increases in his department’s budget for patrol and is charging more for patrol officers to cities that contract with the sheriff for policing. The department’s reports to the California Department of Justice have shown a steady rise in violent and property crimes in the county in recent years.

In 2019, the year the ACLU/Catalyst California report focused on, the sheriff's department reported 58,292 traffic stops, during which deputies seized property in 525 stops, about 1%, found drugs in 237, or 0.4%, and seized firearms in nine stops that year. And about 3.6% of the traffic stops led to an arrest.

The groups argue the traffic stops are part of a policing strategy that focuses on deputy-initiated contacts with the public that are not resulting in crime going down. The sheriff's department polices all of the county's unincorporated land and several cities, including five in the Coachella Valley.

The California Department of Justice reported earlier this month that the county's homicide rate for 2022 has stayed at 4.6 homicides for every 100,000 people, the same as the year before. In 2020, the county logged a decade-high number of homicides at 154, amounting to a rate of 6.3 for every 100,000 people. In 2022, by comparison, San Bernardino County had a homicide rate of 8.5, the highest it had in a decade, while to the west and south Orange County had a rate of 1.9 and San Diego 3.2.

The traffic stop study is similarly based on data that all police departments, including the sheriff's department, are required by law to collect and report to the state’s justice department related to racial and identity profiling during traffic and pedestrian stops. It's data that Bianco argues — without elaboration — is not collected accurately.

"Residents of Riverside County should be extremely comfortable knowing the Sheriff’s Office is committed to providing the highest and most efficient level of service to our residents," Bianco said in a written statement.

"The ACLU is intentionally misleading the public," Bianco added, saying the report's authors "... have been made fully aware of this obvious error in data collection."

The Desert Sun then asked him to explain how the data is incorrect, citing several examples included in this story. Bianco did not respond.

"Any error in the data comes from RCSD deputies themselves failing to accurately report stops, and Chad Bianco, as their supervisor, failing to catch and correct any errors," said Eva Bitran, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. "The obligation to produce accurate data is theirs."

The study's authors analyzed traffic stops that deputies initiated and those resulting from calls for service, which happen after a call for help from the public. The authors argue there are discrepancies in outcomes when comparing the two.

"Communities are safe when every person is healthy, secure, and supported," said Chauncee Smith, senior manager of Reimagine Justice & Safety at Catalyst California. "Spending inordinate amounts of time on traffic stops for minor issues like broken taillights and outdated registration not only wastes public dollars but also leads to harassment, dehumanization, economic extraction through fees and fines, uses of force, and death."

Deputies stopped people on their own initiative 83.7% of the time and did so in response to a call for service 12.4% of the time. And those traffic stops, the ACLU and Catalyst California add, are not substantially leading to serious criminal charges, seizures of drugs or firearms or arrests.

The groups say most of the stops that deputies make, about 81%, are prompted by suspected traffic infractions or crimes that would be charged as misdemeanors.

The study's authors also referenced the department's growing budget, which has accounted for about 12% of the overall county budget in recent years. The sheriff's department's budget increased from $741.6 million in fiscal year 2019-2020 to $942.1 million in 2022-2023. Patrol accounts for about half of the department's overall budget. Patrol costs have increased from about $362 million in 2019 to more than $460 million in the most recent adopted budget.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department reported to the state's justice department that it resolved 38.5% of the number of violent crimes investigated in 2019. The state's average was 45.7%. The county reported resolving 3.8% of the property crimes reported that year, while the state averaged 11.7%.

The sheriff's department has remained at roughly the same rate of clearing reported crimes from 2019 through 2022, the most recent year with available data.

The study's authors conclude that the volume of traffic stops and the department's increasing budget have not resulted in crime rates going down significantly or more crimes being solved. More traffic stops for minor infractions, they add, just increase the chance of conflict between those pulled over and the police.

And not all are stopped equally. The authors state 47.2 out of every 1,000 Black people in the county are pulled over for a moving violation, compared to 33.7 out of every 1,000 white people and 24.2 of every 1,000 Latino people.

Attorney General Rob Bonta similarly noted when he announced the civil rights investigation of Bianco's department in February that the high numbers of deaths in the county jails and use of force by deputies show the relationship between the department and the community it polices is not working as designed.

"All Californians deserve fairness and respect from the institutions that serve them," Bonta said in February. "When some communities don’t see or feel they are being treated equitably by law enforcement, it contributes to distrust and hurts public safety. Unfortunately, it is clear that — amid concerning levels of in-custody deaths and allegations of misconduct — too many families and communities in Riverside County are hurting and looking for answers."

The new study's authors urged the department and the county to participate in the investigation and take seriously its recommendations. They also added that the sheriff's department could spend more time on reducing violent and property crime if it spent less time on traffic enforcement, and issues with homelessness and mental illness.

Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at [email protected] or follow him at @chris_a_damien.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: ACLU says Riverside County sheriff's traffic stops don't fight crime