2009–2025Contact Cards in Cincinnati A Review of Racial Bias in Police Stops,

Twenty-five years after the killing of Timothy Thomas sparked a citywide reckoning with police accountability in Cincinnati, a new Campaign Zero analysis reveals that racially biased policing has not only persisted — it has deepened. Drawing on over 472,000 police contact cards filed between 2009 and 2025, our report Contact Cards in Cincinnati documents what the data makes undeniable: Cincinnati Police officers stopped Black people 3.4 times more often than White people in 2025, searched them at twice the rate, and were nearly twice as likely to use force against them once stopped. These disparities exist across every neighborhood, every stop type, and every outcome measured — and they are getting worse, not better.

Website HERE

Copy of the report HERE

Contact Cards in Cincinnati – A Review of Racial Bias in Police Stops, 2009–2025

The analysis shows that in 2025:

● Cincinnati Police officers stopped Black people 3.4x more often than White people.

● Black pedestrians were stopped 5.4x more often than White pedestrians.

● Black people were stopped in vehicles 3.2x more often than White people.

The Cincinnati Police Department’s data shows that each step in the process – from where and when police stopped people, to who got stopped, searched, subjected to use of force, and arrested – was racially biased against Black people.

Cincinnati Police Department data from 2009–2025 shows:

● Once stopped by Cincinnati Police officers, Black people are:

2.1x more likely to be searched than White people.

1.9x more likely to have force used against them than White people.

1.8x more likely to be arrested than White people.

● In majority White neighborhoods, Black pedestrians are stopped by Cincinnati Police 4.5x more often than White people, and Black motorists experience discretionary traffic stops 5.5x more often than White motorists.

● The more White the neighborhood, the more likely it is for a Black person to be stopped there. Crime rates do not explain this trend.

Get a PDF of the report HERE

Check out a local news report on the reaction of government and the police union. HERE

Have Racial Disparities in Law Enforcement Stops Narrowed? – Public Policy Institute of California

California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) requires detailed reporting on all pedestrian and traffic stops. Recent RIPA data from the state’s largest law enforcement agencies points to a reduction in the overall number of stops—but we do not see a substantial narrowing of racial/ethnic disparities in intrusive experiences during stops.
— Read on www.ppic.org/publication/have-racial-disparities-in-law-enforcement-stops-narrowed/

Chicago Police Disproportionately Used Force Against Black Chicagoans, Study Commissioned by Department Finds | Chicago News | WTTW

The study, conducted by social scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania blamed “systemic factors” for the disparity, not the actions of individual officers.
— Read on news.wttw.com/2026/02/19/chicago-police-disproportionately-used-force-against-black-chicagoans-study-commissioned

Read the full study and its executive summary.

Vantage Point: History of Police Oppression of Africans in America (with Ronald Hampton), Part I

Part I — From slave patrols to modern policing, this Vantage Point conversation with Ronald Hampton examines the history of police oppression of Africans in America and the ongoing struggle for justice, accountability, and transformational change in public safety.

NOTE: Part 2 is also available on the website below.

— Read on HERE

Police Brass Agrees to Suspend Officers for Violating Rights of Black Driver During Downtown Traffic Stop | Chicago News | WTTW

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability determined that three tactical team officers assigned to patrol the Near North (18th) Police District improperly searched Limorris Bell and his car on Sept. 1, 2024.
— Read on news.wttw.com/2025/12/16/police-brass-agrees-suspend-officers-violating-rights-black-driver-during-downtown

The Demographic Shift Challenging Ideas About the NYPD

Friends of Mamdani call the department “racist”; in fact, it’s majority-minority.
— Read on cityjournal.substack.com/p/the-demographic-shift-challenging

Metropolitan Police publishes Dr Shereen Daniels’ independently commissioned report into racism in the Met | Metropolitan Police

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has published an independent report by Dr Shereen Daniels, commissioned by the MPS to examine how the organisation has…
— Read on news.met.police.uk/news/metropolitan-police-publishes-dr-shereen-daniels-independently-commissioned-report-into-racism-in-the-met-503047

TCOLE Analysis of Anna PD Racial Profiling report

See the analysis here: www.annatexas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7648/2023-TCOLE-Analysis

Rethinking the role of race in crime and police violence | Brookings

In a nation grappling with a seemingly endless cycle of violent crime and police shootings, the public narrative often perpetuates a simplistic assumption: These issues are exclusively Black experiences. However, a closer examination of the data reveals a far more complex picture that challenges this oversimplified notion. In 2023, data on police shootings revealed a complex picture, with approximately 40% of civilians shot being white, 20% Black, 13% Hispanic, and three percent of other races; notably, the race/ethnicity of a significant portion—24%—of those shot by police in the same year was not reported, highlighting ongoing challenges in transparency and data collection surrounding these critical incidents.
— Read on www.brookings.edu/articles/rethinking-the-role-of-race-in-crime-and-police-violence/