Throughout December and the start of January, I worked on a project with Voice of San Diego looking at what the San Diego Police Department does or doesn't do to combat racial profiling on traffic stops. Basically, we found that the local PD was not following its own protocol to collect demographic information on traffic stops.r 

This was one of those stories that started out to be very non-visual but with a lot of great reporting from my colleagues Liam Dillon and Megan Burks turned out to be a lot of fun to shoot.

The challenges were myriad. The San Diego Police Department absolutely refused to give me a ride-along with officers. Some of the folks we needed to photograph were in the throes of a court settlement and we went a thousand rounds with some folks who agreed to be photographed and then proved to be less than cooperative.

But we wound up with a nice wrap and a nice layout for it all. We wound up photographing a man who successfully sued the city for a large sum of cash after a judge ruled that the city violated his fourth amendment rights on a traffic stop. I shot portraits of the head of the local Black Police Officers Association, who said that he himself was racially profiled during his young days on the force. And I photographed a very tense meeting with the reporters and the top brass of the SDPD.

Here are come of my favorites from the project, including a few we didn't run. And take a look at the whole thing laid out over at VOSD.

Benjamin Kelso, head of the local Black Police Officers Association, pictured at the location where he believes fellow SDPD officers racially profiled him at a traffic stop 20 years ago.

A San Diego police officer makes a traffic stop on University Avenue in City Heights.

Dante Harrell in the City Heights parking lot where SDPD officers tasered him.

Top brass from the San Diego Police Department respond to questions about racial profiling.

Joshua Chanin, a public affairs professor at San Diego State University, talks about why racial profiling matters. "“It really is about feelings of legitimacy and trust between minority communities and the cops,” Chanin said.

Joshua Jones at the location where he believes he was racially profiled by SDPD.

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne.

A police officer peels away on University Avenue.