MSP Changes How Troopers Record Race at Traffic Stops
The Michigan State Police is fine tuning the way it records the race of drivers during traffic stops.
The Michigan State Police will begin keeping more accurate records of the race of drivers during traffic stops.
The goal is to be able to provide more accurate data of people encountered when pulled over.
First Lieutenant Michael Shaw says the recording of race will be made at the trooper’s discretion.
“I think it’s important to note that the Secretary of State, on your driver’s license doesn’t have race down on there so that’s usually where a trooper would get most of his information as far as your address, your sex, your date of birth, things like that. We are not asking for race,” Shaw says.
Shaw says the record exists only to monitor trooper’s behaviors.
He says officers will list people under one of the five racial categories defined by the U-S Census.
