The extremely wealthy Bay Area city of Atherton, Calif. ticketed 182 drivers from February to July 2013. Out of those, 175 had Hispanic last names, according to an analysis of Atherton's police blotter.
Kent Brewster, a front-end engineer for Pinterest, published his analysis on a website called "Profiling Atherton: The Dark Side To That Funny Little Police Blotter."
"I in no way, shape or form 'hacked' Atherton or its police department to produce this site," he wrote. All the information he used came from public records or the police blotter.
Amid noise complaints from grumpy yuppies and parking violations, he noticed a startling pattern in Atherton, which is right outside of San Francisco. Hispanics who didn't even live in the city received way more vehicle code violations than anyone else.
- Of the 182 drivers ticketed, only two lived in Atherton.
- 96 tickets went to people living in neighboring Redwood City — 39% Hispanic. Atherton's population is 3.9% Hispanic.
- Police issued 99 citations at the two main points where Redwood City touches Atherton.
More than 100 of the people ticketed were charged with misdemeanors for driving without a license. L.A. attorney Steven Rodriguez' blog calls driving without a license a "woblette," meaning prosecutors have the choice to make the offense a misdemeanor or infraction.
Misdemeanors require booking, fingerprinting, and a mugshot and could land the offender 6 months in jail and a $100 fine.
Brewster's findings suggest Atherton police may be profiling Hispanic drivers. Another possibility, as one of our readers pointed out, is that (mostly white) locals are more aware that the city's cops strictly enforce speed limits than those who live outside the city.
SEE ALSO: The 20 Safest Cities In America
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