TY  - JOUR
AU  - Persico,Nicola
AU  - Todd,Petra
TI  - Using Hit Rate Tests to Test for Racial Bias in Law Enforcement: Vehicle Searches in Wichita
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10947
PY  - 2004
Y2  - December 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10947
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10947.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Nicola Persico
Kellogg School of Business
room 542 Jacobs Center
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: (847)467-1796
E-Mail: nicola@nicolapersico.com

Petra E. Todd
Department of Economics
University of Pennsylvania
3718 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA  19104
Tel: 215/898-4084
Fax: 215/573-2057
E-Mail: ptodd@econ.upenn.edu
AB  - This paper considers the use of outcomes-based tests for detecting racial bias in the context of police searches of motor vehicles. It shows that the test proposed in Knowles, Persico and Todd (2001) can also be applied in a more general environment where police officers are heterogenous in their tastes for discrimination and in their costs of search and motorists are heterogeneous in their benefits and costs from criminal behavior. We characterize the police and motorist decision problems in a game theoretic framework and establish properties of the equilibrium. We also extend the model to the case where drivers' characteristics are mutable in the sense that drivers can adapt some of their characteristics to reduce the probability of being monitored. After developing the theory that justifies the application of outcomes-based tests, we apply the tests to data on police searches of motor vehicles gathered by the Wichita Police deparment. The empirical findings are consistent with the notion that police in Wichita choose their search strategies to maximize successful searches, and not out of racial bias.
ER  -