STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Throughout this morning we have news from Nice, France. A man driving a truck ran down scores of people. But in this intense period of news, we are also following up on stories of days or weeks ago. A funeral came yesterday in St. Paul Minn., for Philando Castile. He's the 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor who was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb. Records show Castile had been pulled over by police 50 times almost. So the question comes up - was he targeted by police or just a careless or unlucky driver? NPR's Cheryl Corley and Eyder Peralta dug through public records and talked with family and experts.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Philando Castile's trouble with traffic stops began when he still had his learner's permit. He was stopped a day before his 19th birthday. From there, he descends into a seemingly endless cycle of traffic stops, fines, court appearances, late fees, revocations and reinstatements in various jurisdictions.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Let's go to the winter of 2003. With his license already suspended, he is stopped on January 8 for speeding.
CORLEY: On February 3, it's unclear why he's stopped.
PERALTA: The same thing happens on February 12.
CORLEY: And on February 13.
PERALTA: And again on March 4 and March 22.
ERIK SANDVIK: What Mr. Castile symbolizes for a lot of us working in public defense is that, you know, driving offenses are typically just crimes of poverty. And Mr. Castile's story is one that repeats itself countless times throughout the court system.
CORLEY: That's Erik Sandvik, a public defender in Ramsey County. When Castile was killed his name sounded familiar so Sandvik looked through records and saw that he was listed as his public defender. And saw the same patterns he sees every day.
PERALTA: In one six-year period starting in 2006, for example, Castile is stopped 29 times. Sometimes he's fined $270, sometimes $150. But it keeps adding up. He soon amasses more than $5,000 in fines. Sandvik says someone like Castile might have had to choose whether to pay auto insurance or an outstanding fine.
CORLEY: Larpenteur street is a dividing line separating St. Paul from surrounding suburbs. Falcon Heights where Castile was pulled over by the St. Anthony police is one of them. Maplewood about 10 miles away is another. Maplewood Police Chief, Paul Schnell, can't comment about the Castile police stop, but he has seen the list of nearly 50 citations Castile received when driving through nearby communities.
PAUL SCHNELL: It seems like a lot. So then it does, you know, prompt what, you know - what was the basis and why so many stops.
SCHNELL: Chief Schnell says all of the communities along Larpenteur have policing priorities. He says many consider traffic enforcement good policing.
SANDVIK: Communities where they may not have high demand for services, officers are going to be looking to take action to do things, to produce because that's one of the things that I think that's being more and more expected.
PERALTA: Philando Castile's driving problems often appeared to be triggered by something small, a problem with his license plate or blocking an intersection. When he couldn't keep up with the fines, his license would get suspended, and he'd keep driving.
CORLEY: But all of those tickets he received angered Castile's family, particularly his sister Allysza. She thinks it was her brother's dreadlocks and the big sedans he loved to drive, like the Oldsmobile he was in, made him stand out.
ALLYSZA CASTILE: I'm just baffled. And I've been pulled over in the same vehicle that my brother died in. I've been pulled over in that car probably three or four times in uptown for the same exact reason supposedly a broken taillight. When you run the plates Philando come - his names come - his name comes up so I've been harassed driving his vehicle, myself. So I know that they harass my brother.
PERALTA: Of course, we don't know intent or if police knew something about Castile that's not in the public record.
CORLEY: University of Minnesota law professor Myron Orfield says this doesn't really surprise him. Back in 2003, he studied racial bias in policing.
PERALTA: The maps show that African-Americans crossing into mostly white suburbs, or through the borderlands as locals call it, were up to seven times more likely to be stopped by police.
MYRON ORFIELD: When you see those really stark residential differences between neighboring communities it's often a sign that something - there's some underlying discrimination going on.
CORLEY: According to data from the St. Anthony Police Department, officers issue citations at the same rate as neighboring suburbs, but disproportionately arrest African-Americans. About 7 percent of the residents in the area patrolled are African-Americans, but this year they make up about half of the arrests. Some leaders compare this to Ferguson, Mo., which the Department of Justice castigated for being more concerned about revenue than public safety.
PERALTA: In a statement, the St. Anthony city manager says the data unfortunately shows that St. Anthony and Falcon Heights face many of the same challenges that Minneapolis, St. Paul, and other cities do. He says St. Anthony and other suburbs are continuing to review how officers are trained and engage in activities addressing racism and bias issues. But he doesn't say how and he does not specifically address the issue of traffic fines.
CORLEY: But traffic fines were a constant in Castile's life.
PERALTA: From 2012 to late 2014, like clockwork, he pays off fine after fine - sometimes more than $500 a month.
CORLEY: Beverly Castile is Philando's aunt.
BEVERLY CASTILE: Maybe he's trying to make it right. And he was right. He paid up all his tickets, got his license back and everything else. So it was done right.
CORLEY: Last week, police stopped Philando Castile once again.
PERALTA: Castile's girlfriend who was in the car says it was because of a busted taillight. But in scanner traffic audio obtained this week by Minnesota Public Radio, a seemingly nonchalant Officer Yanez tells dispatchers a different story.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JERONIMO YANEZ: The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects just because of the wide-set nose.
CORLEY: Gloria Hatchett, an attorney for the Castile family says that's racial profiling.
GLORIA HATCHETT: You know, how you say there's a, you know - a robbery suspect with a broad nose, African-American. That is equivalent to saying there's a white woman with blond hair.
CORLEY: What happened next is unclear. Was Castile just reaching for his I.D. or was he reaching for his gun?
PERALTA: What we know is that Yanez fired his weapon. What we know is that throughout his life Castile was stopped by police at least 46 times.
CORLEY: If there was anyone familiar with the routine and perils of a traffic stop, it was Philando Castile. What we know is that the July 6 stop was his last. I'm Cheryl Corley.
PERALTA: I'm Eyder Peralta, NPR News.
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