Description
Do demographics or income influence how law enforcement personnel police neighborhoods, particularly in where they locate DUI/Sobriety checkpoints? Racial bias within police departments has been studied exhaustively, and with recent publicity on shootings, the issue is at the forefront of the news. A more in-depth look is needed in the geography of local policing through standard DUI checkpoints. The focus of this research will be DUI checkpoints in nine California cities with large Latino populations. I use a regression model and, bivariate correlations, to analyze the locations of checkpoints and whether they are predominantly placed in poor Latino neighborhoods. The results of the nine cities examined showed that the higher the Latino population or the lower the income the more likely the placement of a DUI checkpoint in that particular neighborhood. Individually, results for the cities are mixed.
