Revisiting Louisiana Drug Interdiction: Drug Profiling in the Louisiana Justice System

Drug profiling by the Louisiana State Police Criminal Patrol Unit (LSP-CPU) and the deputies of the St Martin Parish Sheriff's Office (SMSO) has been through in-depth analyses by Ruiz (2000) and colleagues (Bowling, Ruiz, & Staub, 2008; Ruiz & Woessner, 2006). Ruiz's essential findings support allegations of demographic profiling in traffic arrests on Louisiana's Interstate-10. Also, Ruiz suggested that the most plausible explanation was attributed to the war on drugs specified by Louisiana's asset forfeiture procedure. Assuming that a similar pattern would exist in the St. Martin Parish justice system, the present study examines the court dispositions that were followed by drug interdiction in Bowling et al. (2008), Ruiz (2000) and Ruiz and Woessner (2006). This study also endeavours to discover more evidence regarding the relationship between the asset forfeiture policy and drug interdiction by the Louisiana justice system. The drug arrest records from 1988 to 1994 that were prepared by the SMSO and the LSP-CPU officers and collected by Ruiz were analysed, focusing on court dispositions.