The U.S. Justice Department is out with its findings after allegations that Tampa Police are intentionally targeting blacks in its bicycle law enforcement program.
The report is a mixed bag for police who say they are applying the law equally regardless of race.
The justice department probe finds that police officers are not intentionally looking to pull over bicycle-riding blacks for investigation or ticketing even though 73 percent of those ticketed were black.
And it says that while police do more bicycle law enforcement in predominantly black and poor parts of the city, their motivation is to make those neighborhoods safer for residents.
But the report goes on the to say that disparities in ticket writing was “burdensome” for blacks and that the bicycle law enforcement program did not increase public safety but did strain relations between blacks and police.
The federal probe came at the request of city leaders after local news reports concluded that blacks were being targeted unfairly by Tampa Police.
