“You only pulled me over because I’m black.” Anyone black person who has been stopped for what they believed to be “no reason at all” has had this thought run through their mind at least once. Even though it is impossible to prove this suspicion, data has been released that shows that blacks in Missouri are far more likely to be pulled over than white or Hispanic drivers.

Missouri’s Attorney General, Chris Koster, has released an annual report which analyzed traffic stops by race according to News.Yahoo.com. In the disturbing report, black drivers were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over by the police than their white counterparts. This represents an increase of 9 percent over last year. The report is the first released since the shooting death of Michael Brown in August of 2014. It is also consistent with the narrative of the Department of Justice’s report on the City of Ferguson that ensued in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. This investigation into the City of Ferguson Police revealed systemic targeting of African Americans by the City for the purposes of meeting municipal budgetary goals. Several police and city officials resigned in the wake of the scathing report.

Chris Koster stated that with so many policing agencies throughout the state, it is difficult to assign specific causalities to why blacks are stopped at a disproportionate rate. He advised that the data collection could serve as a starting point to analyze the issue further and to seek potential policy changes.

Despite the Attorney General’s attempts to deflect from a race narrative, the overwhelming disparity in the rates at which the police stop blacks compared to other races all but confirms the suspicions of many African Americans. The increase in the rate at which blacks were stopped for traffic violations over the past year also raises questions and concerns about possible police retaliation for the intensity and focus on police brutality by African Americans through the Black Lives Matter movement. At a time when relations with the Police are tumultuous at best, any concrete evidence that suggests the disparate treatment of African Americans at the hands of the Police is troubling.