Like black drivers, persons of Latino descent are pulled over by police officers for routine traffic stops and ticketed more often than white drivers, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

This statistic probably wouldn’t surprise the vast majority of Americans, given that the Los Angeles Times reported in 2004 that three out of every four law enforcement agencies pulled over black and Latino drivers at higher rates than white drivers, and six out of seven police departments were more likely to search black and Latino drivers and their cars than white drivers.

What many Americans may find shocking is that unlike black drivers, it was reported recently that a number of Latino drivers have come forward alleging that they were robbed during these traffic stops by the same police officers who pulled them over.

A recent New York Times report said Latino drivers are often pulled over while driving a car with an out-of-state license plate.

The Times reported that the theft usually goes like this: the officer will often ask the driver to step out of the car and place their hands on the car. Once the driver is facing the other way, the officer asks to see the driver’s wallet and begins to search the car.

“After a few minutes, he hands the wallet back to the driver, tells him that everything is fine and sends him on his way. Soon afterward, the driver discovers that money is missing from his wallet,” the New York Times said.

The group of Latino drivers most affected by this form of police theft actually includes illegal immigrants who do not have a driver’s license at all.

About 13 Latino men on the East Coast have come forward in the past few weeks saying that they initially didn’t tell anyone they had been robbed by the police during what they assumed to be a routine traffic stop, as they feared police retaliation or deportation.

After a Suffolk County, N.Y., police officer was arrested during a sting operation in January after stealing $100 from an undercover Latino detective, the men say they decided it was safe for them to share their stories.

The officer who reportedly stole from the undercover detective, Sgt. Scott A. Greene, had been on the Suffolk County force for 25 years. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including official misconduct and petty larceny. However, Thomas J. Spota, district attorney of Suffolk County, said the surveillance video clearly shows what happened.

Talking to the New York Times, Spota said Greene pulled his patrol vehicle alongside the vehicle where the undercover detective was in order to “establish the ethnicity of the driver.” Greene then proceeded to pull the undercover detective’s car over and asked him to stand outside the vehicle while he investigated the car’s interior. According to Spota, hidden surveillance cameras inside the vehicle caught Greene taking a $100 bill from a cash-stuffed envelope on a seat and “slipping it into the cuff of his shirt.”

Though officials have not released a photo of Greene, other Latino drivers who say they experienced a similar theft said Greene’s arrest gave them the confidence they needed in order to come forward. Whether other officers will be found guilty of stealing from drivers during traffic stops, or if Greene was the only officer who engaged in such behavior, remains unknown.

A Mexican worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said he believes Greene is the man who stole from him. While the man said he was pulled over throughout the U.S., likely because of racial profiling, the Long Island, N.Y., construction worker said he received a ticket in most of those incidences.

In January 2013, the man who believes he was pulled over by Greene didn’t receive a ticket, and later discovered he was missing $200.

“It started to happen to all my friends,” he said. If a driver didn’t have cash on them, they were usually issued a ticket.

“People have always been robbed but were fearful that something else would happen or that they would be sent back to their country,” he said.

Although Greene has been arrested since the sting operation, the New York Times reported that the Latino drivers are hesitant to give their names because the Suffolk County police department has a reputation for failing to investigate crimes involving Latinos and has allegedly discouraged Latino victims of crime from filing any complaints.

The U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into the department in 2009, after an Ecuadorean immigrant was stabbed to death, prompting many Latinos in the area to say they had also been victims of racially motivated attacks the police did nothing about.

A settlement was signed in December between the Justice Department and the Suffolk County police department. It requires new policies be put in place to prevent discriminatory behavior, but some immigrant advocacy groups say they are not sure Latinos are being equally protected under the law yet.

Local news report on Suffolk County Police Theft

