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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-27-1999 Articles.. , a ion$ .. r Iowa City Press-Cltl,7en Saturday, April 10, 1999 Page 6A Police to set policy for traffic stops WASHINGTON — Police chiefs from some of the nation's largest departments said Friday they will create a national traffic stop policy that they said will ensure that minorities are not unfairly targeted. The policechiefs made the announcement at a news con- ference with minority activists to launch what they described as an honest discussion on police and race. It came after a day of closed door meetings between police executives and community leaders coordinated by the Police Executive Research Forum. "If we are to deal with it, we must stipulate that race is an issue in policing" Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Ttmoney said. `There are an awful lot of people in denial, but so be it. We must move forward" laclw 4' c C THE NEWS -TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 1999 Notingrace on reports points out bad cops By John Pirro and Joseph Spector THE NEWS -TIMES Guilford Police Chief Ken Cruz says keeping track of minorities stopped by police is as easy as "adding another let- ter on a report." • Guilford is one of only a few depart- ments in the state that keeps statistics on the number of minority drivers itopped. Cruz, who is part Hispanic, said the department started the practice about six years ago, mainly as a preventive mea- sure rather than as a remedy to police profiling. "I always had a question in my mind f you have an officer that is stopping or profiling for either gender or race, how we will be able to detect that ear- lier enough before a problem arose or how would we defend ourselves against any of those allegations?"' he said. As a result, the department requires ing the summer between Hartford and a popular swimming area at the Barkham- sted Reservoir. Schwapp claimed supervisors, relying on a series of warnings they'd received from Hartford police indicating the route was used by gang members carrying guns and drugs, had instructed Avon officers to find reasons to stop those cars. Civil rights leaders and civil liberties advocates across the state were outraged when the allegations were made public. The state's Human Rights Commission filed a complaint against the town and the police department, and the FBI began an investigation to determine whether the rights of any minority motorists or their passengers had been violated. A federal court jury eventually ruled against Schwapp in his $15 million law- -uit, rejecting his claim he'd been sub- ,ected to a racially hostile work atmos- phere while on the job. The issue of the "Barkhamsted Express" was ruled irrelevant to officers to note the race, age and gender of each person stopped. If the person's race is not apparent, the officer must ask Other police leaders contend asking a person's race would introduce racial ten- sion into legitimate stops. Cruz said that's not the case. The department has not received any com- plaints that a police officer asked about a driver's race, he said. Drivers are sim- ply told it's part of their record keeping, he said. But Cruz said, "I'd much rather handle that type of complaint than have some- body come in on the other side and say you are doing this and have nothing to show to defend it." The statistics are compiled every six months. Cruz said of the 2,014 stops from June to December 1998, only 28, or 1.4 percent, of the drivers were black About 2 percent of the 21,000-population town is black Deputy Sheriff Thomas Terribile said Schwapp's suit and was never allowed into evidence. Schwapp is now a police officer in Bloomfield. Avon's assistant town manager, Karen Levine, said the town conducted its own investigation of the allegations, includ- ing an independent statistical analysis of all motor vehicle arrests in Avon dur- ing a four-year period. The study showed no evidence that minorities had been disproportionately targeted, she said. Cruz, the Guilford chief, said profiling by age or race is more perception than reality. He favors proposed legislation that would require all departments to track the race of the people stopped. The steps he's taken should protect the Guilford department from any such claims in the future. "If someone walks in here tomorrow and wants to make these allegations and says this is happening, what do we have?" Cruz said. "We can say, 'Here it is."' it takes him about two hours to compile the data every six months using the department's computer system. An officer in Guilford is required to write a report on every stop, even if it's just to look in on a call of suspicious activity, Terribile said. Officers are also urged to give written warnings to every driver stopped, he said. Cruz said the department policy was established partly after a 1993 case in Avon in which that department was accused of illegally targeting blacks and Hispanics along a stretch of Route 44. Those allegations, which grew out a lawsuit filed by Avon's first black police officer, Alvin Schwapp Jr., drew nation- al attention to the wealthy, overwhelm- ingly white Farmington Valley commu- nity. Avon police supervisors allegedly used the phrase "Barkhamsted Express" to describe carloads of blacks and Puerto Ricans who traveled through town dur- Police Chiefs Heed Critics And Vow to Regain Trust By MICHAEL JANOFSKY WASHINGTON, April 9 — Police chiefs meeting here to examine how their officers could earn more public trust said today that complaints about police misconduct were often valid and that departments had far to go to meet � demands for more accountability, respect and courtesy. The daylong conference, which was held in private on Thursday, was convened in response to the public outcry over the the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immi• grant by four white New York City police officers and by questionable police behavior in other cities. Several chiefs described the hast- ily arranged meeting as highly un- usual for its urgency and candor, much of which focused on race rela- tions. Each of the 19 chiefs was asked to bring a local community leader, someone not necessarily a strong supporter of the chief's department or its policies. The first two hours of he conference were set aside for the community leaders to raise issues of . concern to them, with the chiefs re- quired to listen in silence. The chiefs responded in turn, and for the most part, several said, they agreed with the criticism. "We are collectively committed to doing all we can to strengthen com- munity partnerships and take a hard took at our recruitment, hiring, train- ing and oversight practices," said Thomas C. Frazier, the Baltimore Police Commissioner and president of the organization that arranged the meeting, the Police Executive Re- search Forum, a nonprofit group that studies police issues. Mr. Frazier added: "Yesterday's meeting should be considered the beginning of a continuing dialogue. This process is clearly a journey, not a destination." The chiefs who attended repre- sented large cities, including New York, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, as well as smaller ones; like Arling- ton, Va., and Stamford, Conn. The only specific policy initiative they announced was a pledge to de- velop new standards for traffic stops that include a higher degree of cour- esy than many officers typically dis- play now, often when minority driv- ers are involved. Such new procedures, the chiefs acknowledged, could include some- thing as simple as an apology to drivers who were found not to have committed any crime. Speaking at her weekly news con- ference before joining the forum for about an hour, Attorney General Jan- et Reno described traffic stops as an issue especially sensitive to blacks and other minorities, Who are Often pulled over at a higher rate than whites. "It is so very important that we address the feelings of,Americans who feel that police officers are stop- ping them because of race," Ms. Reno said. The civil rights division of the Jus- tice Department is investigating complaints about police behavior in a variety of contexts in several places, including New York, Los An- geles, Buffalo and the Washington suburb of Montgomery County, Md. Commissioner Howard Safir of New York said the chiefs discussed creating a national standard for how officers should conduct traffic stops. Mr. Safir said that in New York he would speed plans for putting video cameras into patrol cars, with a pilot program in the highway division to start as soon as possible. Besides studying traffic -stop pro- cedures,the chiefs said they would work with leading civil rights organi-. zations to amend policing policies. Echoing views expressed by other chiefs, John F. Timoney, the Phila- delphia Police Commissioner and a former first deputy commissioner in: New York, said: "Frankly, there is a problem with race in policing. To; solve it, we have to deal openly with-, it. If we don't stipulate that race is an issue, everything flows from that and then it's just an academic exercise.'! No recent episode demonstrated the problems more vividly than the shooting death of Amadou Diane, the. West African immigrant who was; standing, unarmed, in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building on' Feb. 4 when police officers fired 41 shots at him, hitting him 19 times.) Four officers have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder. To police critics in New York and: elsewhere, the shooting demonstrat- ed why average citizens have grown distrustful and afraid of people who are paid to protect them, especially in minority neighborhoods. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the research forum, which repre- sents chiefs in 300 cities of 50,000 A forum on the police focuses on race relations. 'i people or more, said several chiefs, had called him in recent weeks to talk about how. they might stop the erosion of trust now that crime was falling in most big cities, with chiefs getting much of the credit. Many, like Mr. Safir, find them- selves on the defensive from people who fear the police as much as they fear criminals. To measure the extent of the prob- lem, the research forum sent ques, tionnaires, asking the chiefs and the community leaders they designated - to assess race relations with the po, lice. Mr. Wexler said the responses' from both sides reflected a surpris- ing level of agreement. Mr. Safir said: "One of the things this conference did was make it clear to me that the perception is nation- wide. The complaints I heard here were not unlike those I've heard from 50 groups I've spoken to since Feb. A. Most complaints are not about force. They're about respect. They're related to how people are treated." Mr. Safir's guest at the conference was Richard E. Green, chief execu- Live of the Crown Heights Youth Col- lective,an outreach program ih Brooklyn. Like other community leaders who attended, Mr. Green said he walked into the room on Thursday skeptical that any mean- ingful progress might be achieved. He said he left feeling hopeful. "it was a very productive, very frank discussion," Mr. Green said. "1 heard things that gave me greater assurance things might change. Was it nirvana? No. But they got the ball to the 20-yard line. We have to work to get it into the end zone." of drivers under fire Police deny race -based traffic stops By Joseph Spector "It's time it stops," Shelton said. THE NEWS -TIMES "You simply can't violate people's civil rights." It's called DWB: Driving While Politicians have put anti -pro - Black. It's legal, but 'police can filing bills at the top of their 9gen- treat it like a crime, des, while minority lead - minorities claim E Word on the ers in local towns have Minority leaders Street: Do you bolstered efforts to across the country want ensure fair treatment by think police in to reverse the trend: They want to target police. Danbury treat Racial profiling is a police who illegally stop minorities fairly? law enforcement prac- minorities. ■ Nationwide, tice of using certain "We have been dealing police re-examine racial characteristics as with what is a thorn in their methods. indicators of criminal the side of hardworking Page B 1 behavior. No complaints African Americans fora 9 have been registered in long time," said Hilary the Danbury area in the Shelton, director of the Washing- past 15 months, a review of citi- ton, D.C., bureau of the National zen complaints of local depart - Association for the Advancement ments show. The News -Times of Colored People. ► Please see POLICE, Page A-12 ��3 P Pohce deny they make racessbased traffic stops ;Continued from Page A-1 :ailed a Freedom of Information :inquiry asking for complaints lodged since January 1998. However, minority leaders say fhe practice is widespread in the ...Danbury area. 1, "I think it's worse than it was 'in 1968," said Sherri Neptune, 'head of the Greater Danbury NAACP. "Why are we fighting the ' came issues that we were fighting :back then?" The timing of the fight is not accidental. Several recent nation- al cases where minonties.bave ,. Bent killed li i polie@ have added the nedd to'curb police bru dality and discrimination, minor- �Ity leaders said. iV'If we don't address this and we it back, it's going to happen over ,$nd over again," Neptune said. parked by the shooting death 0 a black man by a white police Officer in New "Milford last ,December — the man a convict- ed felon wanted by police — the local NAACP held a race rela- tions forum last month with local police chiefs. Most of the atten- dees said they have been harassed and stopped by local police. Neptune, meanwhile, thinks Tce:played a role in the shoot- gf 27-yearold Franklyn Reid, pite state investigators' and al officials' contention that it lidn't. "If that was a white kid and a ack cop, the kid would have en walking today," she said. To combat the profiling prac- t e, several states, including Con- n ncticut, have introduced bills that would require police to keep statistics on the race and ethnic- ity of people stopped. It would also require documentation on why a car was stopped. "In order for us to stop racial profiling, we have to have police doing good police work This is a way for us to determine that," said 49k iefs or mayors should- n't mind anything like this because it's going to get to the officers who are the problem," said James, a black man who was a former Philadelphia police offi- cer for 22 years. The bills aim to make police accountable for all motor vehicle stops, and legislators are using recent incidents and statistics from police departments across Police perception in black and white A 1998 telephone poll surveying 500 state residents on their attitudes toward police illustrates the divide between whites and nonwhites: Survey question ■ Have you personally felt f` �'�,` 84e/a �` ` '28i� r '�4, ever treated unfairly by the police specifically because of your race? Yes 3� ■ Minorities in my community are treated less fairly than whites in 2711 their everyday dealings with the police, such as Agree motor vehicle stops. ■ Do you think that police brutality in your town is a A_-, w�, s, very serious problem, a 41% .13 0 somewhat serious problem, tip not a serious problem or Somewhat or very seriuso not a problem at all? _ ■Has anyone in your own i household ever been physically abused by the 210/6 a SG w; %/oA - police? Yes ■ Do you think the police inConnecticut; need more education and training in 83% 72% 40 :- people skills? ■ In general, the police yy� work as hard to solve criminal cases when the 57% ,;'. 82% 3yc*,= victim is a minority as they do the is when victim white.Disagfee Pat wndu ted by the Uiversay of Cmne,.7M SOURCE Cnu*W ,Native PoVicy Fa,ndatm "the nation as evidence that pro- filing goes on. Some are even using personal experience. State Sen. Alvin Penn, D-Bridge- port, is sponsoring an anti -profil- ing bill that the legislative Pub- lic Safety Committee passed last month. It will go to the Senate this month. Penn is convinced he was a tar- get of racial profiling in Trumbull a few years ago. The black sena- tor was :pulled over by a white officer who gave no reason for the stop, only informing him that he didn't look like he belonged in town, Penn said. "There is no question it was a race -based stop," Penn said. Penn wasn't charged, but he protested the stop and demanded changes in the all -white depart - The News -Times merit. His case gained support when a letter was made public last June from department Chief Ted Ambrosini to his officers. The let- ter stated officers have an oblig- ation to consider the "profile of our community and those who travel within its boundaries." Ambrosini stated the wording had nothing to do with race. Yet the FBI is investigating the department for possible civil rights violations and Penn is part of a town committee to explore race issues and hiring practices in Trumbull. Police have criticized Penn's bill and similar legislation in oth- er states. Many argue that keep- ing statistics would be excessive, tedious and could unfairly label legitimate stops as racially moti- vated. "It's our belief that it will be fairly onerous to collect that data," said West Hartford Chief James Strillacci, a ranking mem- ber of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association. "We're not really sure what it's going to prove. There are a lot of things that can contribute to the statis- tics." Several anti -profiling bills have been rejected in recent years, largely because powerful police organizations lobby against them, said Cynthia Martin, a spokes- woman for U.S. Rep John Cony- ers, D-Michigan. Conyers introduced an anti -pro- filing bill in Congress in March 1997. The bill required the U.S. Department of Justice to collect and analyze data from routine traffic stops, but prohibited use of the statistics in race discrimi- nation lawsuits. The House passed the bill, but it was rejected in the Senate Judi- ciary Committee. Martin said the bill lacked support from top Sen- ate leaders mainly because of police pressure. Conyers plans to submit a modified bill this month. Penn's bill was also modified. Originally, the bill required police to ask the race of each per- son stopped. But police feared that would inject racial tension into each situation. Penn changed the bill to require that police doc- ument what they perceive as a person's race. Still, some police leaders said the bill defeats its purpose. "I think it's discriminatory," Brookfield Chief John Anderson said. "Now you are singling out. minorities because you stop them." Anderson and other local chiefs urge residents to file complaints against police who act unfairly. Anderson, who attended the local NAACP meeting, said the local chiefs plan to circulate a letter to their employees warning "officers are going to be held accountable for any acts of discrimination." Anderson, however, disputed that police target minorities. "If we saw a suspicious vehicle in the area, it wouldn't be based on the fact that someone is black," he said. Police leaders argue some towns have higher rates of minor- ity stops because of the towns' demographics, which could be misrepresented in statewide cal- culations of stops. Strillacci said, in some cases, minorities are pulled over more often. That could be based sim- ply on economics, since minori- ties can have less money, which can result in more motor vehicle violations, such as expired regis- trations and licenses, he said. "In this society, I think you'd have to agree that the economic burden falls more on our minori- ties," Strillacci said. "It should not surprise you then, because of the economic factors, minorities may more heavily be the people who are stopped." That could also play into minorities' perception of police, he said. A study commissioned last year by the New Haven -based Crimi- nal Justice Policy Foundation shows police perception is pro- foundly divided by race, despite the overall results that indicate people find police professional and ethical. Out of 500 Connecticut residents polled by telephone, 2 percent of whites reported being treated unfairly by police because of their race — compared to 34 percent of non -whites. "What it's saying is the public at large has a perception that there is a problem, and I'd argue that there is a problem," said Nick Pastore, a former New Haven police chief who runs the center. Racial profiling is deemed so widespread that the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union are among groups that pub- lish booklets on people's rights when they are stopped —and how to avoid confrontations with police. "It's at the point where you have to teach people how to get through these things without getting arrested or killed," said Hilary Shelton of the NAACP. "It's that bad." The Connecticut NAACP last year established a program called "Operation Blind Justice" to col- lect data on the racial breakdown of drivers pulled over by police. The program was soon adopted by the national NAACP, but its find- ings have yet to be compiled. H. William Knapp, head of the Police Officer Standards and Training Council in Meriden, said racial profiling is not taught to police students. "If a town is doing it, they are coming up with it on their own," he said. "They are not getting it up here." But the statewide police train- ing program doesn't teach against racial profiling either, Knapp said, because it's simply known to be illegal, like robbing a store or assaulting someone. Nevertheless, state law doesn't specifically address the practice of racial pro- filing. Knapp said the academy man- dates courses in race relations and cultural diversity, which many local departments also require. Still, recent cases of alleged racial profiling by police are receiving unprecedented expo- sure. Some recent cases: ■ In 1993, accusations spread in Avon that local police targeted blacks and Latinos traveling on the `Barkhamsted Express," a term for the route through .town to the Barkhamsted Reservoir. ■ In 1995, Maryland state police found 74 percent of stops on a stretch of Interstate 95 were of black motorists, though they con- stituted only 14 percent of drivers. ■ In 1996, a New Jersey judge ruled state troopers were target- ing minority drivers. Statistics indicated minorities were pulled over five times more than white drivers. The case is being appealed. ■ Malik Jones, 21, was killed b;, a white police officer in April 1997 after a car chase in New Haven. The officer was cleared of wrongdoing, but the family of the black man claimed in a federal lawsuit last week that the chase was sparked by racial profiling. Jones was initially pursued by the officer for alleged reckless dri- ving. ■ Last April, two white New Jersey state police officers shot at four unarmed minority men, injuring three of them. The state is conducting a criminal investi- gation. ■ New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman fired the state police superintendent in March after he claimed minorities are responsible for most of the drug trafficking in the state. ■ On Feb. 4, four white New York City police officers search- ing for a rapist fired 41 shots at unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo in front of his Bronx home. He was hit 19 times and died instantly. The four offi- cers have been charged with sec- ond-degree murder. 3cr�3