Contra Costa County’s High Racial Disparity in Cannabis Arrest Rates
According to the ACLU report on A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform Contra Costa County has the second-highest racial disparity in cannabis Arrest Rates in California. The county arrest rates for black are 32 per 100,000, whereas white arrests are only 6 per 100,000 Contra Costa residents, thus the racial disparity for cannabis arrests in the county is 5.4, i.e., a black person is 5.4 times more likely to get arrested for a marijuana offense in the country than a white person.
| Rank | County | Black Arrests1 | White Arrests1 | Racial Disparity2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest | Siskiyou | 453 | 56 | 8.03x |
| 2nd Highest | Shasta | 89 | 14 | 6.42x |
| 3rd Highest | Contra Costa | 32 | 6 | 5.42x |
| 4th Highest | Humboldt | 102 | 20 | 5.05x |
| 5th Highest | Alameda | 30 | 7 | 4.09x |
2. Racial Disparity is the ratio of number of black people arrested for marijuana offences divided by the number of white people arrested for marijuana offences.
Contra Costa County has a population of 1,154,000.2 Blacks make up 9.5% of the population, and whites are 65.5% of the population. Based on these population numbers 35 black people and 45 white people were arrested for marijuana offenses in Contra Costa county. That not a lot of arrests for marijuana offenses. Still, the disparity is large, and likely an indicator of racism in the county police.
Recommendations
We would encourage police department in the county to post their numbers. And if they are high ratios above the state-wide average of 1.8x for targeting people of color that they present a plan to reduce the disparity.
References
- A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 2020.
- U.S. Census Bureau Contra Costa County, California