Pubdate: Mon, 11 Dec 2000
Source: Gazette, The (CO)
Copyright: 2000 The Gazette
Contact:  Tell it to The Gazette, P.O.Box 1779, Colorado Springs CO 80901
Fax: (719) 636-0202
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Author: Barry Bortnick

PROFILING THE POLICE

DENVER - Traffic stops and street encounters with law enforcement 
officers will have new meaning next summer as the Denver Police 
Department takes a closer look at itself to determine how beat cops 
treat Hispanics, blacks and other minorities.

As part of a legal settlement reached recently with the American 
Civil Liberties Union and several plaintiffs allegedly mistreated by 
police after a high school dance in 1996, the Denver Police 
Department has agreed to examine what takes place during traffic and 
pedestrian stops. Department officials hope to gather data on the 
racial and ethnic backgrounds of those stopped to determine whether 
racial profiling exists within the department.

Termed "Driving While Black" by minorities who have long argued that 
law enforcement officers scrutinize people of color unfairly during 
routine traffic stops, the practice of racial profiling is believed 
to be rampant across the country. The New Jersey attorney general 
recently released 91,000 pages of internal state records that 
indicated 80 percent of the automobile searches carried out by state 
troopers during the past 10 years were conducted on cars driven by 
minorities.

Colorado Springs does not collect such information. Instead, Police 
Chief Lorne Kramer said, his department has spent years developing 
strong ties within the minority community.

"We've taken a proactive stance here," Kramer said. "We meet with 
community groups and we have an open dialogue. We want to make sure 
we maintain a level of trust."

As such, the chief said minorities have expressed their concerns to 
his staff, and officers have visited area high schools to get a sense 
of what teen-agers think of the police.

Also, Kramer said his department has included diversity training for 
staff members and for recruits.

"We are starting to bring minority members into our recruitment class 
to have a discussion with new officers to set the tone of the impact 
on minorities who are stopped by police," Kramer said.

Data collection alone won't solve the problem of racial profiling, 
the chief said.

"Keeping more data is a simple reaction to the problem," Kramer said. 
"If there is a negative perception within the minority community, the 
data won't help."

Data collection has had varying results elsewhere. A preliminary 
review of 90,000 traffic stops during the first six months of 2000 by 
the San Diego Police Department indicated that blacks and Hispanics 
were over-represented in vehicle stops. And just last month in 
Colorado, U.S. District Judge John Kane approved in concept an 
agreement to spend a $600,000 racial profiling settlement in Eagle 
County to educate police about the issue.

The Eagle County settlement stemmed from a class-action lawsuit by 
400 people stopped on Interstate 70 during the 1980s because they fit 
the racial profile of drug dealers.

Though Denver minorities have long complained that police officers 
treat people of color differently from whites, there has been little 
statistical evidence to support the belief. That could change once 
the department collects background information on traffic and 
pedestrian stops beginning June 1.

"The actual instances of racial profiling are rare," said Marco 
Vasquez, a captain with the Denver Police Department in charge of 
organizing the data collection. "Very few officers will make contacts 
based on the race of an individual. But what happens more often is an 
officer will make a contact and may not fully explain why the person 
was stopped."

Anecdotal information from minorities in Denver and across the nation 
suggests otherwise.

In New Jersey, for example, documents from the state police show 
racial profiling was an ingrained law enforcement tool. The records 
released by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office included a 
statement by one trooper who claimed superior officers "schooled him" 
in racial profiling.

As yet, it is impossible to say if such a culture exists in Denver, 
but many residents who live in minority neighborhoods feel something 
is wrong.

"I've seen it with my own eyes," said Gene Roach, a plaintiff in the 
1996 high school melee case who is a guardian of several black teens 
in northeast Denver. "I've seen police stop them (minorities) right 
in front of their house. They stop and detain them and write crazy 
traffic tickets. It is the kind of stuff most of us would not put up 
with for a minute."

Police officials have been aware of such concerns for some time. 
Vasquez said the ACLU settlement was just the latest event to warrant 
a thorough examination.

"It has been something on the horizon that needed to be addressed," he said.

More than 300 law enforcement departments across the nation are 
already involved in racial profiling data collection.

Denver police are still unsure how the data will be gathered. 
Officers may simply note their observations after traffic stops 
rather than ask individuals about their ethnic backgrounds.

"We want to get the information without adding a burden to the 
officer or raising emotions," Vasquez said. "The officers will 
probably put down their perception of what the race is and not ask 
the person."

The data will be analyzed, but even then police may not know what the 
figures really show. Police officials in San Diego say their raw 
numbers indicate minorities are over-represented in traffic stops. 
But the department has yet to fully digest the numbers to determine 
whether racial profiling is to blame.

"We don't know how to interpret the data," said Rulette Armstead, an 
assistant chief in San Diego. "We are on the Mexican border and we 
have a lot of tourists and people in the military here, so we don't 
know who makes up the driving public. The numbers show African 
Americans and Hispanics are stopped in larger numbers than others 
are. But we don't have a benchmark by which to measure this."

Denver officials expect to run across similar problems once the data 
here are collected. All the same, no matter what the numbers reveal, 
police leaders say the work will show the public that the city is 
serious about racial profiling and interested in finding ways to 
eliminate the problem, if it exists.

"The information will be illuminating," said Joe Brann, a retired 
police chief from Hayward, Calif., now working as a consultant with 
the Denver police. "It will ensure that the department and the public 
understand what is really going on in respect to police contact and 
interaction. The department will be better able to explain its 
actions and the community will understand why the contacts were made."

At the very least, Brann said, the data collection will make beat 
officers more aware of the situation.

"We can't just gather the data," he said. "We must understand the 
reasons behind it and see if it is across-the-board or the acts of 
individual officers."

Officer behavior is just as important as raw numbers, said Ida 
Gillis, president of the National Organization of Black Law 
Enforcement Executives in Alexandria, Va.

"We hear from citizens that they feel they are not given due respect 
and are not told why they were stopped by police," Gillis said. "The 
attitude and behavior of the officer can escalate the situation."

Many residents in minority neighborhoods see the Denver department's 
policy as a step in the right direction.

"This is not an adversarial situation," said Darrell Watson, 
president of the Whittier Neighborhood Association, who is part of a 
police task force addressing the racial profiling issue. "We are 
working with the police, and this shows they are willing to 
communicate with the community."

Watson knows the issue well.

"I was stopped in my neighborhood. No reason was given for the stop," 
he said. "I assumed I was stopped because it was night and the color 
of my skin."

Watson believes residents and the police will benefit from the investigation.

"This is not an attack on the police. We are not attacking them and 
they are not attacking us," Watson said. "We are trying to solve a 
problem."

Everyone agrees that number-crunching is just the start of a long process.

"The statistics can move the police officers and the department away 
from a state of denial and into a problem-solving mode," said Mark 
Silverstein, legal director with the ACLU in Denver. "I suppose it is 
possible that Denver may be the exception and unlike any other major 
department, Denver may find no statistical difference for people of 
color. But I would be surprised if that happens."
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