BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – We’re getting new insights today from the special investigator who spent months digging into the policing practices in the town of Brookside, trying to figure out whether officers were racially profiling drivers they pulled over.

Judge Ken Simon and his team reviewed over 13,000 citations. They also visited multiple town halls and sifted through police body cam footage to try and determine if Brookside police were racially profiling.

“I did not find any strong evidence of racial profiling in the way that citations were issued,” said Simon.

Judge Simon says that is because in the data his team reviewed, 43% of the community is Black, but only 40% of the traffic stops were Black drivers. White drivers represent 49% of the community and they represent 52% of the stops. 

Simon did find significant evidence of what he calls “selective enforcement” with respect to warning tickets. The data shows that white drivers were much more likely to receive a warning than Black or Hispanic drivers.

But what is the difference?

“Well I am not really saying there is a big difference between the two. So what I am saying is, we did find selective enforcement, or if you want to look at it, racial profiling when it came to warning citations,” Simon explained.

Judge Simon also found what he calls red flags in the amount of certain citations given to some minority groups, but isn’t ready to call that racial profiling.

“We look at those, what we call disparities, we look at those as red flags. It is something that deserves further scrutiny and should be looked into to see if there really is profiling or selective enforcement involved.”

Simon suggests the department should focus now on additional training and working closer with federal partners.

Click here to hear from Brookside Police Chief Henry Irby, and what he is doing to better the department. 

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