Racial profiling is a term used to describe any police action that relies on ethnicity rather than behavior to target suspects engaged in criminal activities. Does the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) invoke racial profiling in stops and searches of LA drivers? This question was addressed in Chance (Spring 2006).
a. Data on stops and searches of both African Americans and white drivers are summarized in the accompanying table. Conduct a test (at α = .05) to determine if there is a disparity in the proportions of African American and white drivers who are searched by the LA police after being stopped.
b. The LAPD defines a hit rate as the proportion of searches that result in a discovery of criminal activity. Use the data in the table to estimate the disparity in the hit rates for African American and white drivers using a 95% confidence interval. Interpret the results.

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Number Number Stopped Searched of "Hits" 12,016 5,312 Number Race African 61,688 5,134 Americar White 106,892 3,006