Extra! Extra!

Blacks pay higher interest on home loans

Binyamin Appelbaum and Ted Mellnik of The Charlotte Observer used mortgage loan data from 25 top lenders to show that “blacks who bought homes in communities across America last year were four times as likely as whites to get high interest rates for mortgage loans.” The interest rate disparities occurred even when blacks had substantially higher incomes. The paper looked at 2.2 million mortgage applications from 2004 for its study and posted a breakdown of patterns on the Web. (Editor's Note: Others interested in doing similar stories should see Jo Craven McGinty's IRE Beat Book, Home Mortgage Lending: How to detect disparities. In addition, IRE and NICAR offer the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act database to journalists and journalism educators.)

Police disregard rape complaints

Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis police have failed to file official reports on many sex crimes over the past 20 years, instead writing informal memos on cases that would not be counted in the city's crime statistics. "The Post-Dispatch analyzed many of these cases and found police often discounted claims by women who were reluctant to testify, easy to discredit or difficult to locate." The paper fond that "Memos were a symptom of greater problems in the city's handling of rape cases." Many records were obtained only after a lengthy FOI battle.

Church leader takes in millions

John Blake of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used public tax and property records to show how Bishop Eddie Long, leader of the 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, received more than $3 million in salary and property over four years from a tax-exempt charity that he founded in 1996. The charity's compensation for Long was nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined in the same period. Blake used the charity's tax returns and property records in Georgia and corporate papers filed in New York.

Legislators leasing vehicles

Chris Casteel of The Oklahoman used rarely-scrutinized records detailing congressional office expenses, finding that “Rep. John Sullivan is leasing a sport utility vehicle in his congressional district for $1,242 a month at taxpayer expense. Rep. Frank Lucas rented a car in December in Oklahoma City and paid more than $1,500 for it out of his congressional office account.” Both lawmakers opted to rent or lease rather than seek reimbursement for using their personal vehicles.

Judging school performance

Sanjay Bhatt of The Seattle Times used achievement and growth data from Seattle Public Schools to examine "high-performing" schools. Bhatt explains: "I used Excel's pivot table feature to do a neat 3 x 3 table that gave readers new insight on looking at test scores. I triangulated two different types of data — achievement and growth. The achievement data shows the percentage of students who passed the state's high-stakes test. The growth data shows the average student made high, normal or low growth in a year. What you see when you triangulate is that there are lots of low-achieving schools (with disproportionately high numbers of poor children) whose staff accelerate students' learning by more than a year's worth of progress. There are also high-achieving schools whose students make less than a year's worth of progress."

Developers take advantage of agricultural breaks

Samuel P. Nitze and Beth Reinhard of The Miami Herald used local property data to show that “under a 1959 state law intended to preserve agriculture, developers reap huge property tax breaks by herding cows or raising crops in the most unlikely settings. Some pay less in annual property taxes than the average homeowner on parcels slated for multimillion-dollar projects.” One developer saved a quarter-million dollars last year by placing cows on land containing industrial warehouses. Florida has lost about 8 million acres of farmland since the law intended to preserve such property went into effect. With a methodological description.

Disparities in distribution of fed transportation money

Erica Werner of The Associated Press analyzed county-by-county spending in California contained in the recently-passed federal transportation bill, finding “vast disparities in how the money was doled out, and perhaps no contrast was more stark than between California’s two fastest-growing counties. Riverside County has five times as many people as Placer County. But residents of Placer County, which connects Sacramento and north Lake Tahoe, are getting five times as much money per person in special projects as residents of Riverside — $261 each in Placer compared with $47 per capita in Riverside, half the statewide average of $95 per person.”

Crime data shows drug arrests in blighted area

Bryan Chambers of The (Huntington, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch used local crime data for a story about the city’s effort to clean up a blighted area. “Between September 2003 and May 2004 nearly 21 percent of the city’s 290 drug violations either occurred on Artisan Avenue or within a two-block vicinity, according to a Herald-Dispatch computer analysis of statistics compiled last year by the Huntington Police Department. A little more than 6 percent of the citywide violations occurred in the 1600 block of Artisan Avenue.”

Race a factor in Dallas jury selection

An investigation by Dallas Morning News reporters Steve McGonigle, Holly Becka, Jennifer LaFleur and Tim Wyatt found that prosecutors and defense attorneys in Dallas County exclude jurors on the basis of race, despite Supreme Court bans on discrimination in jury selection. The findings were based on an analysis of information from juror cards, transcripts of juror questioning, court records and interviews with more than 100 current and former prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, jury consultants, social scientists, jury scholars, law professors, jurors and prospective jurors and community activists. The package, continuing through Tuesday, includes Supreme Court decisions and trial transcripts, as well as the paper's methodology.

Little oversight of profitable charter school

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Connie Langland and Dale Mezzacappa report on a charter school's manager "who has turned Chester Community Charter School into a profitable, expanding business in the heart of the virtually bankrupt school district." Vahan H. Gureghian's Charter School Management Inc. has a 20-year contract with the school's board of trustees that both have refused to make public. The county has paid the company about $10 million since 1999 for management, with a large percent of that going toward Gureghian's management fee. The agency charged with overseeing the school's finances "says it has been too preoccupied with the district's own fiscal woes — now being investigated by the state attorney general — to even ask for basic documents from Chester Community. The Inquirer's examination of the school's finances was based on state data and financial reports and six years of federal tax filings ending in 2003-04, the most recent year available."

Deadly force used to end car chases

Roma Khanna and Rosanna Ruiz of the Houston Chronicle analyzed police shootings to find that "Harris County sheriff's deputies have turned to deadly force during car chases four times since 2002, killing one and wounding four ... Among the people they pursued and shot were a man driving with his headlights off and another who had stolen DVDs from a drugstore." Although the number is small, "the Houston Police Department and most other Harris County agencies have not used deadly force to end a car chase in more than six years."

Day cares fall below standards

Lee Rood of The Des Moines Register checked state child care facility inspection records to find that "at least one in 10 licensed centers — including several newer programs — failed to meet several of the state's minimum standards for health and safety during their last licensed renewals." Many of the programs receive only sporadic oversight, with inspectors visiting as little as once a year. "Licensing records do not always include details of abuse allegations or document how centers resolve serious safety issues, such as complaints about lack of supervision."

Low-income residents less likely to appear for jury duty

Hurst Laviana of The Wichita Eagle used local court records to show that "less than half of the Sedgwick County residents summoned report to the courthouse in any given week. And low-income residents — many of them minorities — are far less likely to report for jury duty than residents of white middle-class neighborhoods." Poor address-keeping is a major cause for why some potential jurors either never get their notices or get them too late. The paper combined the juror information with Census data using mapping software.

SUV brakes leave drivers shaken

Jennifer Kraus of WTVF-Nashville reports that more than 200,000 Nissan vehicles are on the roads with brakes that vibrate and shake when drivers try to stop the SUVs. Whle a Nissan spokesman said the shaking is "uncomfortable" but not dangerous, dealers say they hear complaints from drivers "every day," Nissan says it has come up with new parts that will solve the problem and is shipping them to dealerships.

O.C. sheriff's office falls short of averages

Tony Saavedra, Monica Rhor and Aldrin Brown of The Orange County Register analyzed eight statistical categories for Orange County's police agencies and found wide disparities in way police prevent and solve crime. The categories analyzed included response times on emergency calls, the success rates for solving homicides and other violent crimes, officer-to-resident ratios and the overall direction of crime rates for each of the county's 34 cities. A main finding: The 12 cities patrolled on a contract basis by the Orange County Sheriff's Department have fewer officers and much slower response times than the county average. Those cities pay a total of $76.7 million for the department's services, representing 13 percent of the department's total budget. The project includes a map of response times and an explanation of how the criteria were weighted.

Police helped hide sexual abuse cases involving priests

Joe Mahr and Mitch Weiss of The (Toledo) Blade reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed dozens to find that Toledo-area police helped the local Catholic diocese hide cases of sexual abuse by priests. "Beyond past revelations that the diocese quietly moved pedophile priests from parish to parish, The Blade investigation shows that at least once a decade - and often more - priests suspected of rape and molestation have been allowed by local authorities to escape the law." Some alleged abusers were never investigated, while officials prevented the release of case files for other investigations. "The cover-up has been confirmed by former police officers and the diocese's former spokesman, Jim Richards, who said church leaders 'knew who to call in the police department' to keep cases quiet."

Chlorine plant is top mercury polluter

Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used EPA data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia's single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year. Although much of the focus on mercury pollution centers on coal plants, chlorine producers are responsible for more mercury emissions. "Nationally, the average coal-fired power plant reported 84 pounds of mercury emissions in 2003. The average chlorine plant reported more than 1,074 pounds. Of the 100 power plants with the most mercury emissions, the average total air discharges was 484 pounds - less than half the average from a chlorine plant."

E-mails reveal early hiring concerns

Mark Pitsch of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal used Kentucky's Open Records Act to obtain emails showing that "less than three months before the state hiring investigation began, Gov. Ernie Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and the transportation personnel director confided to each other in e-mails that laws may have been broken." The state's Attorney General, who is investigating hiring practices under Fletcher, was unaware of the emails until the paper published them.

Benefit payouts generous for public employees

David Milstead of the Rocky Mountain News used documents and recordings to find that the benefits offered by Colorado's Public Employees' Retirement Association to its employees have been generous. "In total, leave payouts have cost PERA more than $2 million since 2000. The benefits don’t end there. PERA has spent $429,000 on new cars and car allowances for its executives in the past 10 years." The investigation includes a sidebar on how the story was done.

20 percent of fired teachers accused of sex crimes

Pamela Hamilton of the Associated Press used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing that "one in five educators sanctioned by the state for bad behavior in South Carolina in the past three years had been accused of sexual misconduct such as molesting or having sex with students or other children." Nearly 300 teachers have been disciplined during that time span.

State lax on enforcing weight limits on trucks

Pat Stith of The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, with assistance from database editor David Raynor and news researcher Brooke Cain, reports that "the state Department of Transportation has ignored a series of increases in truck weights approved by the legislature and failed to protect more than 1,000 bridges that are not strong enough to routinely handle the added weight." As North Carolina legislators increased weight limits four times since 1993, the state did not identify and update information on bridges affected by the changes.

Drunken driving cases often end in dismissals

Brad Branan of the Tucson Citizen used databases from two courts to analyze about 33,000 drunken-driving cases filed from 1999 to last year. He found that "thousands of motorists are charged with drunken driving each year in metro Tucson, giving the area one of the highest DUI arrest rates in the country. But nearly half of those accused escape conviction in the courts that handle most DUI cases." More than 60 percent of the drunken-driving cases that don't end in conviction in Tucson City Court and Pima County Justice Court are dismissed.

Politics plague state's safety aid program

Rick Hepp of The (Newark) Star-Ledger analyzed state and federal spending on homeland security in New Jersey, finding that politics can make a big difference: Somerset County towns in the past three years "have received more than $2.7 million in federal Homeland Security grants designed for 'first responders,' but only $235,000 from New Jersey." The state money was controlled by the governor's office, often as a way to "reward Democratic Party loyalists. That was not a good equation for Republican-dominated Somerset County, which got 1 percent of the state grants between 2002 and 2005."

Money, debts high in Texas county

Paula Lavigne of The Dallas Morning News used Census and state economic data to show that while residents of Collin County, Texas, are among the wealthiest nationwide, many also have large debts: "On average, Collin County residents have more credit card debt - $4,200 - and a lower net worth - $125,000 - than residents of other high-income counties throughout the country... the county is full of young couples with children who take on excessive debt, in many cases simply to keep up the lifestyle of their friends and neighbors." Lavigne will chat online about the story on Aug. 16.

Home prices rose sharply

Bob Fernandez and Alletta Emeno of The Philadelphia Inquirer analyzed real estate data from the region to find that a rising tide of prices is lifting many boats: "the gains are broad-based and remarkably even, with the median gain ranging from 13 percent in Bucks and Camden Counties to 17 percent in Philadelphia and Gloucester Counties. The region's median price rose to $177,500 in 2004 from $155,000 in 2003, a 14.5 percent increase." The paper also has a database of median home prices.

Most schools fail spending requirement

Dion Lefler of The Wichita Eagle used Census data to show that a new Kansas requirement that school districts spend 65 percent of their money in the classroom will require a lot of changes: "An Eagle computer-assisted analysis of 2003 Census data found that only 30 of the 302 school districts in Kansas met the 65 percent standard, under the definitions used by the U.S. Department of Education. Wichita, the state's largest district, has one of the lowest classroom spending percentages in the state and compared to districts of similar size across the country. At 56.1 percent, Wichita is No. 276 on the list of 302 Kansas school districts."

Very few hold power in Richmond

Staff at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, along with Aaron Kessler used the social network analysis program UCINET and more than 50 interviews to investigate who really wielded power in Richmond, Va. The series includes a story about the four men central to Richmond's power, a story about minorities and how political influence does not equal power, as well as a sidebar on how the series was done. The series includes an interactive network map detailing the Web of power.

State lobbyists spending nears $1 billion

An analysis by The Center for Public Integrity found that lobbyists and their employers in 42 states reported spending nearly $953 million in 2004 attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials. That figure is up from the $904 million reported in 2003. "It seems likely that state lobby expenditures will exceed the $1 billion mark this year." The investigation includes a sidebar on methodology and general breakdowns of their findings.

Rise in disability retirements plague funds

Beth Musgrave and Delano R. Massey of the Lexington Herald-Leader used local records to find that the city's pension fund for police and firefighters is ripe for abuse: "Police officers who have run afoul of the law or departmental policy have retired on disability pensions before internal investigations could be completed or discipline handed down." More than a third of pension benefits go to disabled former employees, while the comparable figure for state police is 3 percent.

Researchers sell secrets to Wall Street investors

Luke Timmerman and David Heath of The Seattle Times use sources and documents to investigate at least 26 claims that drug researchers leaked secrets to Wall Street. "In 24 of the 26 cases, the firms issued reports to select clients with detailed information obtained from doctors involved in confidential studies. The reports advised clients whether to buy or sell a drug stock." A sidebar on how this is done is included, as well as information on how the story was reported. The investigation has already sparked an SEC investigation.

African-American voter turnout high

Nancy Cook Lauer of the Tallahassee Democrat used local voter data to show that federal oversight of elections in five Florida counties meant to ensure African-American participation seems to have worked: "voting behavior in the five counties under federal scrutiny - Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe - pretty much reflects voting behavior in the state as a whole." Nearly two-thirds of black voters in those counties went to the polls last November, slightly higher than the turnout for the entire state.

Former nuclear workers not receiving compensation

Keith Rogers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal used federal data to show that compared to nuclear workers at other sites around the country, Nevada Test Site employees have not received compensation for illnesses at the same rate. "Only 6 percent of test site workers have been approved for claims that typically pay $150,000 in tax-free compensation. That's compared to 26 percent for workers at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., gaseous diffusion plant; 25 percent at the Portsmouth, Ohio, plant; 18 percent at the Paducah, Ky., plant; 8 percent at the Savannah River, S.C., site; and 7 percent at the government's Hanford, Wash., facility." The Nevada site is the only place where nuclear devices had been exploded.

Blast site had history of problems

Dina Cappiello of the Houston Chronicle used state records to show that "the portion of the Texas City refinery that burst into flames July 28 was the site of repeated malfunctions that could have been prevented if BP correctly and more frequently performed maintenance on the unit." The incidents included the installation of an incorrect pipe and a bad valve that released pollution. The paper found "at least eight cases where the incident was part of a 'recurring or frequent pattern'."

Hurricane related building codes going unchecked

Steve Myers, Bill Finch and Brendan Kirby of the Mobile Register surveyed local governments to find that "numerous jurisdictions in Mobile and Baldwin counties have not been enforcing significant portions of their building codes, those designed to protect residential homes from hurricane damage." Only two communities enforce the highest level of wind-resistance protection, and they adopted those standards last year.

Honorary program gives political insiders cop-like badges

Trent Seibert and Brad Schrade of The Tennessean use state department records to investigate an "honorary captains" program that gives campaign donors, political insiders and friends troop-like badges. "Officials say the program is an atta-boy, a way to recognize people's contributions to the state. But critics say it's an invitation for the well-connected to brandish their influence and avoid getting tickets." The report also found the grandson of a powerful Bredesen supporter was under the impression that the badge was supposed to get him out of a drunken-driving arrest in January in Lauderdale County. Although he waved it at a trooper, he was ticketed. The story includes a sidebar listing recent honorary captain recipients. The governor ended the program in response to The Tennessean story.

County grant program riddled with problems

Daniel Chacón of the San Diego Union-Tribune analyzed county grant receipts finding a multimillion-dollar system riddled with shoddy bookkeeping and lax oversight. The investigation "found that records for 54 grants totaling nearly $1 million are missing. Receipts that have been collected show that money has been spent on everything from Cheetos to seared ahi crostini." Many of the organizations receiving grants are considered grassroots organizations and don't have paid staffers to handle financial reports.

Some furniture purchases seem unneeded

Rebecca Walsh of The Salt Lake Tribune used Utah's open records laws to review furniture purchases for state employees moving into two new office buildings. "Many of the dozens of chairs and desks and filing cabinets and bookcases replace stapled-together fixtures from years ago. But other bills might make taxpayers shift in their own seats - a $1,487 flat-screen TV monitor in the administrative services conference room, $20,000 to frame Senate president and member portraits and the $6,000 tab for each legislative staffer's mahogany-colored cubicle."

'Highly qualified' teachers don't always equal high student scores

Amy L. Kovac and Jaci Smith of New Jersey's Herald-News used state education data to show that in Passaic County, having a "highly qualified" teacher doesn't always mean that students will do better on standardized tests. "The largest disparity was in Passaic's Lincoln Middle School. About 71 percent of eighth-graders there failed to achieve proficiency on their state exam; 89.2 percent of their classes were taught by teachers who meet the federal definition of 'highly qualified.' At The Learning Center in Passaic, 96 percent of fourth-graders scored at or above proficient on their standardized test; 60.5 percent of classes in the school were taught by 'highly qualified' teachers."

Weapon seizures increase at airports

Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain data on weapon seizures at airports, finding that "daily for the past three years, passengers at U.S. airports surrendered an average of 14,000 potential weapons. That is enough to arm every passenger on 33 filled-to-capacity Boeing 747 jumbo jets - every day." Smaller airports have a higher rate of weapons being turned over, even though most prohibited items are collected at larger facilities. The haul includes nearly 5 million knives and more than 1,000 guns.

Alcohol scam drives up prices

Michael Beebe and Robert J. McCarthy of The Buffalo News report that New York's lax regulation of alcohol sales has resulted in a system in which producers and wholesalers provide "retailers illegal payoffs of money, trips, even gold Krugerrands to push certain brands of wine, vodka or whiskey. Some of the biggest liquor wholesalers in the country further defy the law by offering Bacardi, Absolut, Drambuie and other famous brands for $1 a bottle to select retailers, usually the biggest." Using New York's Freedom of Information Act, the paper found that a state investigation - never publicly released - detailed "the biggest stores routinely getting illegal deep discounts not offered to others. When smaller retailers found out about the bargains, wholesalers refused to sell, saying they were 'limited availability' or 'restricted' items."

State provided child counseling contracts to felon

Susan K. Livio and Mary Jo Patterson of The (Newark) Star-Ledger investigated the background of Corey Davis, who got nearly $700,000 in state contracts to provide child counseling services despite the fact that "the budding entrepreneur had a felony drug conviction and owed thousands of dollars in child support to two women. Some of the people he employed also had criminal backgrounds. But the state blindly nurtured Davis until learning one of his mentors had cracked up a car last summer, injuring a 6-year-old boy." The state launched a criminal investigation after the paper began asking about Davis.

Loan deal raises questions

Mike McGraw and Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star uncovered documents showing that a city housing agency provided what experts called a "sweetheart" loan to a group redeveloping an apartment building. The recipient defended the financing, although "neither the original loan documents nor later changes in the agreement were ever made public by recording them at the Jackson County Courthouse - standard procedure for such real estate transactions."

Water supplies threatened by gasoline contaminates

Ron Hurtibise of the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports on Florida's efforts to clean up gasoline leaks in Volusia and Flagler counties, finding that "In 20 years, the state has spent $2.3 billion on cleanup strategies that often haven't worked. Old, steel gas station tanks, easily corroded in porous sandy soils, faithfully serviced generations of Florida motorists but paid no respect to the water supply vital to the state's growing population." Remediation efforts are successful for some spills but not at others, "despite outlays of hundreds of thousands of dollars, reams of paperwork and thousands of hours of employee work time."

Tow companies use vague laws to keep towed cars

John Dickerson of The Scottsdale Times investigates a nearly-legalized theft common across Arizona. "Several tow companies are literally keeping towed vehicles against the will of the owners and later selling them." Tow companies are filing paperwork saying the vehicle has been abandoned and if that vehicle is not reported stolen within 30 days, the tow company gains possession.

State employees benefit from huge housing perks

Duane Pohlman of WEWS-Cleveland investigates why department of natural resource employees are receiving huge discounts on state-owned homes. "On Kelley's Island, where houses rent for thousands a month, a park ranger is renting an entire Cape Cod from the state of Ohio for just $201.50 a month." The department admits that the discounts are based off of outdated estimates on the properties.

Disgraced deputy beats system

Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer report in a three-part series on how a disgraced sheriff's deputy beat the system. The report details the allegations made against the deputy, including drug use, theft, attempted stalking, conspiracy to promote prostitution and official misconduct. "For 14 years, the detective worked on his own, rarely checking in, partying with prostitutes, making deals with escort-service operators, driving the county executive's car and traveling to Mexico, Thailand and Canada." In a short period of time the deputy went from "from facing a felony trial and a firing recommendation to a prosperous retirement."

DWI record worse than known

Liz Chandler, Ames Alexander and Danica Coto of The Charlotte Observer used driving records from several states to show that "an illegal Mexican immigrant in North Carolina was charged with drunken driving at least five times before a July 16 wreck that killed a Gaston County teacher." North Carolina authorities were unaware of Ramiro Gallegos' out-of-state convictions, which should have resulted in deportation or a two-year jail sentence.

Bill could make wetlands easier to destroy

Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times used a social network analysis program analysis and documents to show that "a developers' lobbyist helped write a state bill that would make it easier to get a permit to destroy wetlands of 10 acres or smaller. When it passed, the builders persuaded 15 members of Congress to send Gov. Jeb Bush a letter urging him to sign it. He did." The measure's sponsor was warned by Bush that the legislation could hurt her legislative career.

Adoption deal raises concerns over surrogate program

Kevin Corcoran of The Indianapolis Star investigates a child welfare case involving a surrogate mothers program. The program granted an adoption to a 58-year-old, single, schoolteacher who was approved, despite "the absence of a legally required study of [Stephen F.] Melinger's New Jersey home or a period of preadoption supervision by an Indiana-licensed agency, court records show." The investigation includes sidebars further investigating the surrogate mother in the case, the adopted father, and a sidebar about the judge from Indianapolis who tightened the rules to disallow the adoptive father from taking the infants to New Jersey.

Problems plague food safety system

Tim Darragh and Christopher Schnaars of The (Allentown) Morning Call uses restaurant inspection data to investigate food safety in Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania. They found that Pennsylvania's "patchwork of food safety laws and public health agencies often fails to provide even minimal monitoring of restaurants and food retailers." School cafeterias scored well on recent inspections. "The schools averaged 97.7 out of a possible 100 on recent food inspection scores, better than the average for all establishments." The investigation includes a side bar explaining how they got their data.

Most traffic chases caused by minor infractions

Eunice Trotter, Tom Spalding and Mark Nichols of The Indianapolis Star analyzed police pursuit data to investigate the 86 deaths Indiana saw in the last decade following police chases. They found that "initiated pursuits that ended with at least one injury or death in one of five cases." Most of the pursuits were found to be for minor infractions, with almost three out of four set off by a traffic violation.