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JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- Black motorists were more likely than others to be stopped by Missouri police last year.

An annual report released Wednesday by the attorney general found that black drivers were 69% more likely than white motorists to be pulled over in 2010.

Attorney General Chris Koster says the findings are not conclusive evidence of racial profiling.

"One of the best uses of these reports is as a springboard for dialogue and communication between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve," Koster said in a press release. "It is vital that Missouri law enforcement agencies continue to review the rates of stops and searches and to continue their outreach efforts."

The statistics compare the racial demographics of Missouri's driving-age population to racial characteristics of motorists in the nearly 1.7 million traffic stops, 112,000 searches and 84,000 arrests last year.

The "disparity indexes" compare the proportion of stops for drivers of a particular race or ethnicity to the population proportion of that group. A value of "1" represents no disparity; values over "1" indicate over-representation, while values under "1" indicate under-representation.

The 2010 the statewide African-American disparity index was 1.61, down slightly from the 2009 rate of 1.62, according to the report.

Jefferson City Police's disparity index for African-Americans was 1.45, Cole County's was 0.84, both lower than the statewide rate.

"We provide ethnic diversity training on an annual basis, well beyond the state-mandated requirements by POST for Police Officers," said Capt. Doug Shoemaker, Jefferson City Police spokesperson. "Attendance at this training is mandatory for each sworn officer."

In Boone County, both the sheriff's department and Columbia Police had disparity indexes for blacks above the statewide average. Columbia Police's index was 2.02 and the Boone County Sheriff's Deptartment's was 2.26.

The Boone County city of Ashland had a disparity index of 27.29 for black drivers, the highest for mid-Missouri, which was down from last year's rate of 31.52.

"Ashland is a transit point between Jefferson City and Columbia," Ashland Police Chief Anthony Consiglio said. "Most of the traffic stops with African Americans happened along Highway 63."

Ashland Police pulled over 60 vehicles with black drivers last year. 53 of those stops occured on Highway 63 and were mostly for speeding, according to Chief Consiglio.

"The speed of the vehicle is what prompted the traffic stops," Consiglio said. "That's before the officer would have known the ethnicity of the driver behind the wheel."

The report also showed that police in Missouri were also more likely to arrest black and Hispanic drivers and search their vehicles. However, searches of the vehicles of white motorists were more likely to turn up contraband.

98.3% of law enforcement agencies submitted information for the 2010 report. The Attorney General's office will submit to the Governor the names of the 24 agencies that did not respond.

Koster said factors such as crime patterns or the existence of an interstate highway in a given region may affect data samples.

To view the entire report, Click HERE.

Statewide Results:

What do you think, does the AG's report point to racial profiling? Have you experienced racial profiling?

(The Associated Press contributed to this story)