right now, at this defining moment in america, with so much on the line -- from abc news, "my america, your america, our america." this is "turning point." tonight, driving while black. pulled over five times more than white drivers in some cities. >> driver looks -- more like one of our suspects. just because of a wide-set nose. >> philando castille stopped 52 times before he was killed behind the wheel. his family speaking out, demanding change. >> does it offend you that he was pulled over that many times? >> yes, it does. it definitely means he was profiled. >> why one doctor wears scrubs every day, everywhere. howis seals him from

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driving while black. shorthand for a long-simmering problem that suggests people of color are often targeted unfairly by police. tonight an abc investigation into some of the nation's biggest cities and how a routine

traffic stop can often turn deadly. here's abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas. >> there is not a moment that goes by when police are riding behind me where i don't fear being pulled over. >> when you're drive down a street, you know, those blue and red cherries come on behind you, you all of a sudden get a tingle. your heart starts to race. even when you know you've done nothing. >> i will light you up! get out! now! >> wow. >> get out of the car! >> for failure to signal? >> adrenaline pumping. pulse quickening. a routine traffic stop makes most of us anxious. but for too many black americans, such routine encounters with police can also mean the difference between life and death. walter scott. samuel debose. philando castille.

for a number of those whose loved ones have been killed, the fear and anger at police, that some who have sworn to protect are instead viewed as danger. >> they are here to kill us because we are black. >> my nephew philando was murdered by a police officer in minnesota. seeing my sister's son, my nephew, shot and killed in a car by a police officer. it was devastating. >> philando castille's life was cut short on july 6th, 2016. he was 32 years old. on that fateful night, officer hiranamo jiminez -- >> i'm going to stop a car. i'm going to check i.d.s. i have reason to pull them over. the driver looks more like one of our suspects.

just because a wide-set nose. >> reporter: the situation escalates in a matter of seconds. >> sir, i have to tell you, i do have a firearm on me. >> okay. don't reach for it then. >> i'm not pulling it out. >> don't pull it out! [ shots fired ] >> you just killed my boyfriend. >> reporter: less than 40 seconds after approaching the car, yanez opens fire. >> phil did everything he could company. hands in plain sight. he offered information. >> did you see effort to de-escalate? >> no, he didn't try any other nonfatal approaches. >> reporter: officer yanez would be acquitted on charges of second degree manslaughter and dangerous discharge of a firearm. he would later be let go from the st. anthony police force. but the family of castille would receive nearly $3 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. there's no evidence castille was

involved in any robbery. and as a law-abiding citizen, he had been granted a permit to carry a concealed weapon. philando castille was beloved in his community. he worked in st. paul as a school cafeteria supervisor. >> he was a bright, caring individual. he loved the work that he did. he loved his mother, his sister. his whole family. >> i can tell you miss him. >> oh, yeah, without a doubt. i think about my nephew every single day. it could be a song. it could be a kid i see walking down the street with dreads. i think about phil. >> reporter: the pain of sudden loss still lingers. and for his uncle clarence, the fear that this couldto him rema. >> driving while black and dealing with law enforcement is one of the most serious and deadly encounters that could happen to a person of color. the seriousness of an

african-american dealing with police has been a problem in our country for 150 years. >> reporter: an abc news investigation in partnership with our own stations examining traffic stops has revealed stark disparities. >> every one of these young men we talked to can recall getting stopped by police. this is an issue from coast to coast. >> reporter: in a number of major cities across america, black drivers are far more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers. when accounting for the racial makeup of the cities and counties. in minneapolis, where george floyd was killed, five times more likely. chicago and san francisco, four times more likely. in philadelphia, los angeles, raleigh, nearly three times more likely. for philando castille, being pulled over was a frequent occurrence and caused financial hardship. according to a complaint by the aclu, castille was stopped 52 times between 2002 and 2016.

sometimes twice in one day. in one year, he was stopped eight times. does it offend you that he was pulled over that many times? >> yes, it does. because it definitely means he was profiled. >> reporter: the traffic stops resulted in 86 minor traffic offenses and $6588 in fines and fees. though half of the charges were dismissed. >> this is sort of the tragic example of what happens when we use the justice system as a piggy bank. when fines and fees are used for revenue and we incentivize police to pull over more people. >> what kind of things are we talking about? >> he gets pulled over once, the first time. fines and fees are imposed. when he can't afford to pay those fines and fees, his driver's license is suspended. philando castille faced the same impossible choice everyone faces. either stop driving in which case you can't access basic necessities. or take the risk and continue to drive, which is what about 75%

of people do, including philando. now he has a misdemeanor charge, because driving on a suspended license is a misdemeanor in every jurisdiction. so this is how we take somebody who just on the basis of their poverty, induct them into the criminal justice system. >> reporter: in chicago, where black people are four times more likely to be stopped, edward ward told our station wls, he maintains a mental checklist that he goes through when being pulled over. >> i have my hands 10 and 2 on the wheel. i'm looking at the officers. big smile on my face to appear nonthreatening. >> reporter: a program coordinator for chicago public schools, ward says he's lost count of the number of times he's been stopped by police. most recently in july when he took this video. >> i'm actually being stopped again by the police. there's a lot that many companies with the fear. the fear of being falsely accused. the fear of being presumed guilty. some of us as americans were granted the presumption of guilt

until proven innocent. >> reporter: a number of african-americans have described being treated as suspects first, citizens second. is that what you see playing out here? >> it's hard to feel fully your sense of citizenship when the police are treating you more as a suspect. for example, the last time i was pulled over by a police officer, i think might have been 35 years ago. >> wow. >> it just doesn't happen to me. i'm a white, middle-class college professor. >> take your safety pouch off the sun visor. roll your window halfway down. place your safety pouch on the window. put your hands on the steering wheel. >> reporter: new orleans, black americans are pulled over at a slightly higher rate. but enough so that loyola university student david price invented this safety pouch. >> traffic stops turning deadly, or just overconfrontational, because of people reaching for information. it's something that really has

been needed. just because that officer may mistake you reaching for your documents, for something else. so that's why i created this, in hopes that it eases the tension. >> reporter: an abc news finding in louisville and houston, black americans were stopped at roughly the same rate as white americans. but despise parity, the fear remains. the police chief has had difficult conversations around race and policing with his own family. >> this conversation my father had with me in spanish, a as cuban immigrant. that i've had with my own kids. about 162 officers in three years have been fired, resigned in lieu of being fired, or retired. so that's not a few bad apples, that's a few bushels of apples. it is smart to have that conversation because you want to conduct yourself in a manner where you don't give a bad cop the opportunity to act with a bad heart. >> reporter: and there are those fighting for institutional

change. after the death of seven dra bland, who died in a jail cell after being arrested in a confrontational traffic stop, lawmakers passed the sandra bland act, mandating texas officers receive de-escalation training. reform. what needs to happen? >> there's so many simple things that we could do. one is, separate the financial incentives. stop using the traffic code as an excuse to do a fishing expedition. keep the roads safe. you know? stop speeders, stop drunk drivers. but don't use the traffic code and the vehicle code as an excuse to fight the war on crime, because we have to recognize that the vast majority of people who are pulled over or searched, potentially humiliated, are going to be innocent. >> reporter: in fact, in 4 of the 6 cities where data was available, black americans are less likely to be found possessing contraband than their white counterparts. >> less likely to mind it on

latinos and african-americans because the threshold of suspicion is lower, so they're routinely subjected to these searches even though they're not carrying anything illegal. >> reporter: for clear rence castille, the time to change is now. he's taking matters into his own hands. in 2017, he joined the st. louis police reserves. why was it important to company that? >> this whole thing about the police reserves started before philando was shot and killed. my idea behind it was to work with police officers, to learn a little bit more about what they do, learn some of their terminolo terminology. then take that information back to the community and share it with young people. and i wanted firsthand knowledge of that. so i could share that information. then i wanted my people to see me in this uniform. but after phil was shot and killed, it became even more important then. because i wanted them to know that even though this horrible thing had happened to my family,

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♪ "turning point" continues with byron pitts.

>> driving while black, got to think about kind of how the things you do will be perceived. how perception can lead to deadly consequences. there have been times when folks will assume that you are in an area or doing things with malintent. these are my scrubs. i wear them everywhere. i just want to be safe. >> so guess for me how many times you think you've been pulled over by the police? >> i can't count. >> more than five times? >> yeah. >> more than ten? >> i don't know. i don't know. >> you've been pulled over so

many times by the police you can't even -- give it a number. >> yeah, quite a few. it is so exhausting. it really wears you down. i'm a urologist. i love urology. >> reporter: for all his success, arturo holmes is a black man in america where too often, he says, skin color trumps character. >> at some point i just realized my interactions with cops were different. >> reporter: amid the covid-19 pandemic our doctors and nurses have been lauded heroes, scrubs signifying courage and selflessness. for dr. holmes they're also become armor of sorts. you made the decision to only wear scrubs in public. why? >> i feel like sometimes out in the world, when people interact,

you know, with me, they may be more guarded. more cautious. you know, there's so much going on in the world, especially after we've seen kind of interactions with people of color, or even just everyday citizens, and how situations can escalate and become deadly. >> reporter: decker holmes says while on his way home from work last year, he was pulled over by four nypd officers in an unmarked car. he believes his scrubs eased their suspicions about a young man driving while black. >> i just remember feeling so nrvous. they ultimately share they had were looking for gang-related activity in the area. after they noticed my scrubs. i remember thinking, i just don't want to become another hashtag. >> reporter: in july, amid national protests following the killing of george floyd, dr. holmes penned an op-ed in "the washington post" about his decision to wear his scrubs everywhere he goes.

>> that's why i wear my professional uniform like armor. hoping this fabric might mitigate deadly prejudice. for some, its pale blue hue signal at degree of humanity that my skin color seemingly does not. >> reporter: for black soldiers returning home after every american war, to emt breonna taylor, the hope their uniform might convey the humanity of their skin color, is too often not conferred. >> blacks in general have been making the choice you've made for generations and it wasn't enough, in too many situations. meitigate deadly prejudices. >> reporter: outside of work, scrubs for his protection. but at suny downstate hospital in brooklyn, they're also

aspirational. >> in america, a lot of black patients don't have block physicians. just being a black physician, you know, gives them hope. >> in counter world, your scrubs are both armor and inspiration. >> yes, they are. >> reporter: inspiration and hope that one day his scrubs could be thrown in the wash after a long day's work and he could make it home, free of fear. doc, how long do you think you'll have to wear scrubs in order for the world to see your humanity? >> that's a great question. i don't have an answer to that. will that be in my lifetime? i don't know. will i have to wear scrubs forever? i don'ow uh - uh, lisa, maybe less heartbroken? geico lets you file a claim online, over the phone or with their app. ♪ that makes me wanna say... ♪

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