Study: Racial gaps in arrests pervasive in Calif.
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
Arrest rates have dropped for all racial groups in California over the past decade, but African Americans are still much more likely than whites to be arrested on felony charges, the state Attorney General’s Office reported.
In 2015, blacks were 10 times as likely as whites to be arrested on robbery charges and three to five times as likely to be arrested on charges of burglary, theft or assault, the report said. For felonies involving narcotics, black men were six times as likely as white men to be arrested, and black women were 2.9 times as likely as white women.
The report, part of a year-old project by the state Attorney General’s Office to study arrest records statewide, comes at a time of national controversy and protests over racial issues in law enforcement and police killings of black men.