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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-13-1999 Articles* The Gazette, Sat., June 19, 1999 «„ Bwww. Garetteonline.com Iowa City checking for police profiling By Adam Lowenstein Gazette Johnson County Bureau IOWA CITY — Starting July 1, officers in the Iowa City Police Department will ob- serve and report the gender and race of all drivers pulled over during traffic stops, re- gardless of whether a ticket is issued. The data will be entered into the department's comput- er along with standard infor- mation, such as location of the stop and license number. Unlike that information, however, the patrol data race data will determine will be com- whether piled and used to de- officers are term ine pulling whether any motorists over of the 75 Po- based on the lice officers in Iowa City color of their are pulling skin. motorists over based on the color of their skin. That practice, known as ra- cial profiling, has been in the national spotlight recently as President Clinton and mem- bers of Congress respond to high -profile lawsuits. In a memo sent to officers Friday, Police Chief R.J. Win- kelhake explained that the most unobtrusive way to gath- er the information is through officer observation. Though some cities such as San Diego get the data by reading magnetic strips on driver's licenses, that technol- ogy is not available in Iowa. Once the data is compiled, the department will begin to interpret the numbers and look for conclusions. "One of the things we are dealing with is what is mean- ingful and what isn't. There are a number of different ways people could choose to look at that," Winkelhake said. Winkelhake has sought ad- vice from two national organi- zations, the National Organi- zation of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the Police Executive Research Forum. Winkelhake said he will ex- amine the data in three months and report his find- ings. • • 0 Pi ion Iowa City Press -Citizen Take the advice jPolice are offering some advice. Take it. ie Two women have been °stopped and assaulted in Iowa City. In one case, the man pretended to be a police officer. All it took was a flashing red light in the car. This ought to make every- one nervous, but there are j ways to protect yourself. Here's what Iowa City (Police suggest: ■ If you're pulled over by an unmarked car, drive to a well -lit and preferably public area before stopping. ■ If someone in civilian clothes identifies himself as a police officer and you have any doubt whatsoever, ask that a uniformed officer be called to the scene. ■ Keep your doors locked and only roll your window down far enough to be able to talk with the person. An inch or two should do it. These are simple solu- tions to a terrible problem. And they work. Do it. Page 11 A Thursday, June 24, 1999 Q o M Q� a U) C o CM �0) 7 0) T u o- E c_ z o 0 3 E d E ��5 ma V�VroL,��ETc� E 5 "U �.SG E 3 S �O p v'E co o m t f E� p .� � FJ' E � 1G 9 •A 'S ro iv ,S T o � 3 'o � ❑ a d'- � �'. '� � � y B ❑ m LL F ti N v D 5 3 3 0 V v E �- » c09 w�ro �um3 La 3' v: O�= ro„L�roro12 �y— .o U2 y F D v c w O C T J Wum °'a:c o3 � v •--1 � c a v O S O C DO O 41 V= 1 GL. cct Iowa City Press -Citizen Drunken -driving arrests up PressCilizervDanny Wilcox Frazier An Into Stale Patrolman conducts afield sobriery test early Wednesday motorist passed the sobriety test but was arrested for driving nahoul a morning at a motorist check point on //igh.,nv 965 near North Llbern The license. Officers find other problems with motorists By Brian Sharp The Pre. Citizen Drunken -dining arrests by Iowa City Police are on pace for the largest single -year increase of the decade. As of Wednesday, Ixdac cited 164 dmnk dove, n i,c l:m. I, c rmparcd m 11 S fur the sane penrd last year and 24K 14vr years ago. ern along wah dmnkcn da- mp. :,,, toe and......in" InunJ n cnmiztcedy Imaraung pmblmrl during nomn,I chcdrymtr, Ihn uccA "fhc nndoni Indite aup, i&raolwd anncn,u, ,chicle, ullh rain" .qulpnxnl-,uch y, humal.nll taillights and turn signals, di- vers and pasunge, not wear - mg oam"It, and Improperly acurul chit, zatery seat. tan GoWsmnh is the aura admima, mr for the Govcmor', I"the Safety Burc:ui. the ,tete enwp largely respunsihlc ha hmdmg the lmlu agcnp ch"kp(.... hu,c pnhlanx. m many na.lnce.. lnohcr endanger lu. Dada .hc .aul — nnunp panlcul... wnccm far and" p ""tiger ,lminl Con. idol . the taped "I .I Ib Inph ,l.e) 1„npar.lnlc1,, 1 head Fast dive from a three story building ■ In a 20 mph crash, as unbelted baby can hit the wimkhieW with the force of a 400.pound sledgehammer. ■ A crash occurs every 8'h minutes in Iowa — a state where as e,uin,wd one m live peopte du not wcm a >cmheh. Iowa Cuy and Coalvlllc Pnbce. along .vah Unrvenip of Inwa Pohhc Sxlurs anJ the Iowa Slam I'tuul. y<nt aM+m "I'll l haa, %iond:n and I c.J.I} rnht, chi klnp. novena, .Ind thclr'01"1 , .11 arm,-tundcd Iry,'cuun pool, d,rnngh„at In, area More than 20 officers checked 450 vehicles and wrote 226 violations and wam- ings. Most were for equipment problems or seat ben viola ions- Police also nxbleed five dmnk drivers, seven motorists dining with a suspended or revoked license and two with aN, cinwinets The multi -agent' chef Iwmt have Men crmduaal annually lur more than 6,, carSnme (x`opk slant hkc 11 Sonic Noplc think n'. groat.. loran Illy Pupa sp tun Smllur cnit of the.hakly nn.. See ARRESTS/9A s in I City rev rate of arrest, ,vi have "t test t O'M ciesas ibs year year Srtncit 1993. u Is— I—r.„ a.R (�— /: _. Arrests From 1 A that generally held up nwlonsl,e for about live minutes. "Thal inconve- nience may have saved a loved one from being injured or killed" Mark and Janice Rooy of North Liberty are one example. The couple were returnine home on l lilhway 965 early Wednesday morning. "I hate it;' Janice Rocy said. '9 think they should be catching crimi- nals instead of harassing Inc. Mark Reny. however, said the checkpoint was a good thing if it caught a drunken driver he might meet farther down the road. The couple received a warning for not having proof of insurance. Goldsmith uses the word "crash" not "accident" when talking about the dangers of driving — because crashes are preventable, she said, and generd- Officers: Holiday weekends aren't only time for fatalities The coming Fourth of July week- end has a history as the most deadly on the nation's roads. But IherC is reason to be optimistic. The number of fatalities on Iowa roadway., is declinine. Iowa recorded three fatal- ity crashes on Memorial Day week- end, and one during that stretch last year — the lowest on record. ly so is the degree of resulting injuries. Iowa City Police 0177cer Eric Lippold was among the officers checking vehicles this week. For him, it was a break from the routine, which typically finds him in the downtown area as the bar crowd lets out for the night. Lippold joined the force in 1989 and, for every three motorists stopped, Bill law enforcement officers caution that driver precaution and safety is noljasl a holiday issue. "We have fatality accidents out here any day of the week," said Iowa State Patrol S9-r Bob Ten Eick who has logged 29 years as a patrolman. "They don'ijust pick the weekends" — B� Bnon Sharp he Ibund one driving drunk. It is better now, he said — about one in six. He arrests nearly 150 drunken drivers each year — accounting for almost one-fourth of the department total. He is aggressive in his enforce- ment. But he sites a simple reason: Iowa had 49 murdect last ycar com- pared to about 142 people killed by drunken drivers. a� � L m4=, _ o ems, � ` .. v •• ,- a 3 Env m °Jo'�u.EmLmo7 3���'°w>c >oroo.�3m;c 1.w.T.0 3CO° Uw WFEoL'v, o 0 �vmv❑v�rommw m.Db u, �, s3,om c�i�o^��W. � B m c"a '.��. � 3 o aci N � d « � ❑ � �� � °' �' � �w 3 � oLn,o `° V 3 obZ xbE�yN i xq o.y vP,� c� won RN G Y f6 min.." �u x,0 MOWN= b��o.c El ov v u, vb 'p .; C L O Q v ° ,� r, L �, w 3 y N � y vEl C > 4f !C oLUU m Q^vQ°3 x � ❑ C u or ��mU�F.oe,��ovvov� c 0 0 L1�oaci�PaaFio�m.0 oo`�Fai oidn3 o' `d�rnvo Cedar Rapids Gazette, Sunday, July 4, 1999 Gallo. finds reward in police work By Steve Stepanek News correspondent IOWA CITY — Call it "paw and order." That's one way of characteriz- ing the Iowa City Police Depart- ment's use of Gallo, a 2-yeai-old German shepherd police dog, to keep crime at bay. On active duty since early NEWSMAKER February, Gallo already has es- tablished that, in Iowa City at least, man's best friend can also be a miscreant's worst night- mare, according to Ron Gist, canine patrol officer. Gist is Gallo's handler, house - mate and closest pal. Gallo has been getting plenty of attention lately because of the public's response to buying a bulletproof vest for the dog. When people learned there was not enough police depart- ment money to buy the vest, they responded. "Gallo is a dual-purpose dog, which means that he has not only been trained as a patrol dog, but also as a drug dog, Gist said. "That means besides being able to sniff out hidden drugs, he can also provide other benefits in the field, such as protecting patrol officers, track- ILLt'' ■ Address: Iowa City ■ Age: 2 (14 in human years) ■ Occupation: Primary Canine Asset, Iowa City Police Department ■ Place of birth: Germany ■ Education: Graduate, 15-week preparatory course, Detector Dogs International, Omaha, Neb. ■ Animal family: Canidae ■ Interests: Playing with chew toys ing down suspects or lost indi- viduals, and conducting build- ing searches." To date, Gallo has been par- ticularly useful in drug cases, uncovering controlled substanc- es in about half the instances in which he is called upon, Gist said. Gallo also has performed well in more dangerous roles. "I still remember the night of our first building search togeth- er," Gist said. "We had only been together in Iowa City for a couple of weeks, and we were called to New Life Fitness at around 3 a.m. to investigate a possible intruder. "Fortunately, we didn't find anyone," Gist said. "Even so, Gallo obeyed every command flawlessly, and at that point I was completely confident that I PAGE ( of 2 0 d U o:x�>ov'on ��roo3 0 O N d W L ate+ L d i N� O N El Ay TC cCd Fx t C7 WO C A W coi 7 3� C a O cv 3NONroa y -� m Oq e >o mmEv«"m �o V u3 v � oCN o_ m'C a° m o° w u o d v 3 V - G'C E O vN 'O ro LL Oq H V v .n N S GNO V u o C T C O O H z y u id T N O v id ro " v ti 00 > a o d' au p'C 30 d T'd .0 C U P�, C Z f1. Iowa City Press -Citizen Our view Traffic stop data. must be used well Iowa City Police finally have agreed to track the race of people in traffic stops. Additional work? Yes. Data open to misinterpre- tation? Yes. But it's also the right thing to do. Race -based traffic stops have been at the center of a national debate. Locally, the issue started coming up last year when police stepped up efforts to stop gang activity after two shootings in south Iowa City. Police Chief R.J. Winkelhake says adamantly that Iowa City Police don't make traffic stops based on race. "It's not our policy to do profiling at all," he said. But he also has come to the conclusion that police explanations and denials do nothing to convince the pub- lic. "The only way to show that is to collect the data" he said. It's too bad, but he's right. Confidence and trust in police is not what it should be. But now we will have hard facts and figures. And it's up to us — the public — to use the information cor- rectly. The issue: ■ Iowa City Police to begin noting race of people in traffic stops. We suggest: ■ This is the right thing to do. But we must be careful not to misinter- pret the information. How? Keep an open mind. Just because a black motorist or Hispanic motorist or anyone else is stopped by police does not mean the person was pulled over just because of his or her skin color. We also must look at the circumstances. Was a tail light out? Was the car weav- ing or speeding? Does it — or the occupants — match a description from a crime? Or maybe the stop is a random one, such as those conducted to search for drunk drivers. We now will have a tool to assess how police are con- ducting their business. We welcome that. But let's use that tool cor- rectly. If we don't, the infor- mation we get will be worse than having none at 0 Page 11 A Thursday, Jul't 8, 1999 Local Iowa City Press -Citizen Iowa City justice rejection surprises Shaw Despite a federal official's claim to the conuary, an Iowa City man said Thursday that the U.S. Justice Deptutmant failed to tell him it had rejected his request to reopen a civil rights investigation into the 1996 dead- ly police shooting, of his son. Jay Shaw said he once again learned of a fedend decision not to prosecute front the media. He will not pursue fur- ther legal action. His son, 31-year-old Eric Shaw, was shot and killed Aug. 30, 1996, by former Iowa City Police Officer Jeffrey Gillaspic. Theofficer. who was im-estigatint* all open door, said he thrichect' Gillaspie later resigned. U.S. Justice Department spokesman David Slade said this week that intonnalion received in the Shaw: late Slay request to U'S Auornev Genera Janet Reno did not war- rant reopening the case. Sladc j said his office kept the 1lkmih appraised of its progress In September 1998. the departntcnl ❑nnounccd it lacked evidence to prosecute the case as a civil tights viola- tion. The Johnson COnnh' Auornev's Odicc and a count' grand jury liwnd no basis liar criminal chances. The Sham, settled a wrongful death claim against file city on Jan. "0' 1997, receiving 515 million. "I hoped, in the hack of uv mind, that a nuracic would hup- pen;' Shaw said. ''file chances of that ... were slim" Page 3A Friday, July 9, 1999 Local News - The Des Moines Register Page 1 of3 • Sections ■ Headlines ■ News Extras ■ Forums ■ Columnists ■ Weather ■ Duffy • Other News ■ Sports ■ Entertainment • Marketplaces ■ Cars ■ EmpEmployment ■ Real Estate ■ Classifieds • Navigation: Headlines : Crime & Courts: Report Shooting inquiry splits D.M., state By TOM ALEX Register Staff Writer 07/02/1999 The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will not look into Wednesday's shooting of a man by two Des Moines police officers because police officials refused to let DC1 agents lead the investigation. The DCI is state government's largest detective agency, and its agents are routinely called in to investigate incidents across Iowa in which police officers fatally wound people. That had been the practice in Des Moines, too, until Wednesday afternoon, when two officers fired eight shots at Russell Stein, 37, hitting him seven times. Police said they were trying to disarm Stein, who was carrying a knife near his Des Moines home. Police said officers began shooting moments after Stein attacked and stabbed Sgt. Russell Schafnitz. Stein was the third person to be shot to death this year by Des Moines officers. The dispute between Des Moines police and the DCI has raised new questions about whether such shootings should be investigated by an independent agency or board. In the past, Des Moines city officials have said it was not necessary to have a civilian review board to look into the actions of police officers because the DCI served the role as an independent investigator. Mayor Preston Daniels said he was surprised to learn that the DCI did not have the lead role in the investigations of Des Moines police shootings and that the agency had not been truly independent in past investigations. He said he would like police and state investigators to work together in examining police shootings. But M QAvrch /s not xhout http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/8250281.htH 7/2/99 Local News - The Des Moines Register Page 2 of 3 he said the state probably should have the authority to lead such investigations. "If DCI has been asked to come in as an independent investigator, that's the role I would expect them to play," Darnels said. "If that's been stymied in any way, that sounds totally inappropriate." Steve Conlon, a DCI spokesman, said Thursday, "We want to ensure we do an independent investigation because that's the perception." A role in which DCI agents take part in an investigation being directed by Des Moines police is no longer acceptable to the state agency, said Iowa Public Safety Commissioner E.A. "Penny" Westfall. She said the DCI stands willing to help but only if the DCI is the lead agency in such an investigation. That is the policy the DCI already follows in other cities in Iowa when police shootings occur, she said. The change in the DCI's position concerning investigations in Des Moines came during a review of the state agency's policies. Des Moines Police Chief William Moulder said having the DCI conduct such an investigation is not acceptable to the police department. He said one agency needs to take the lead, and Des Moines needs to lead its own investigations. Moulder said that in the nearly 15 years he has run the Des Moines department, DCI agents and police officers have worked together many times. Until a couple of years ago, they filed separate reports on those joint investigations. In the past two years, he said, they have filed joint reports. Moulder said two sets of questions could result in two sets of answers. Witnesses and other people interviewed may be supplying truthful information, but separate reports can make statements appear to be in conflict, he said. "Separate reports cloud the issue," Moulder said. Westfall said she is confident Des Moines officers have the expertise to conduct a professional http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/825028 Lhtml 7/2/99 Local News - The lies Moines Register Page 3 of 3 Daniels said he spoke Thursday to state officials who assured him previous investigations of Des Moines police shootings had not been compromised by the roles the DCI and police took. But, he said, "I think this will raise questions." Ako Abdul-Samad, an advocate of a citizen review board for police, said he welcomed the DCI's announcement and hopes it will lead to healing decades of distrust between police and some groups in Des Moines. "In any mediation, you have to have a mediator," said Abdul-Samad, who is founder of Creative Visions, an organization that works to keep youth out of trouble. "There's never been a mediator here. Moulder talked with Westfall on Thursday. "I expressed my disappointment," Moulder said. The former arrangement between the DCI and Des Moines police worked, the police chief said, because "if ever there was an issue of the police department shading the facts, the DCI was there to make sure the facts were in their proper form." Asked if another agency could join the investigation of the latest shooting, Moulder said: "It's too late now. They need to be there at the front end. You can't go back and start again." 0 Navigation: Headlines: Crime & Courts: Report Find more news every day in The Des Moines Register. Subscribe now. Copyright© 1999, The Des Moines Register. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated to 2/23/98). hitp€//www.dme®gister,com/news/stories/c4788993/8250281.htmi 7/2/99