Take a Step Against Racial Profiling

Few issues spark more passion and rage among black and Latino leaders than the practice of targeting minority motorists for unwarranted traffic stops.

According to a Justice Department study, blacks comprise about 14% of the U.S. overall population, yet account for more than 70% of all routine traffic stops. This has triggered demonstrations, lawsuits by dozens of black and Latino motorists, denunciations by President Clinton and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, and probes by local and state officials. The House last year passed a bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, to require a Justice Department study of racial and ethnic statistics on traffic stops by state and local police officers. The measure, Senate Bill 821, remains stalled in the Senate. But despite the uproar over so-called “driving while black and brown” abuses, many law enforcement agencies hotly deny that they racially profile blacks and Latinos. It’s easy for them to say that since other than anecdotal horror tales of mistreatment by police on the highways, there is no smoking-gun proof that the practice exists. To get that kind of proof requires law enforcement agencies to keep hard numbers on the race of each motorist they stop on the roads.

So far, only two states, North Carolina and Connecticut, have done that. But now California has a chance to jump on the bandwagon. Senate Bill 78, authored by State Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), mandates that the Justice Department submit to Gov. Gray Davis annual figures on the race, age and gender of motorists stopped by the California Highway Patrol, as well as the reason they were stopped, and whether a search and arrest was made as a result of the stop.

The bill overwhelmingly passed the state Legislature for the second year in a row with many conservative Republicans backing it. The CHP, which must compile the traffic statistics, does not oppose the legislation, and police officials in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego have already begun to compile their own stats on the race of motorists stopped by police.

Yet Gov. Davis hasn’t signed the bill, and he has given no indication that he will. Time is running out. He has until Oct. 10 to sign it. But there also is the strong possibility that he will veto it. While no police group openly opposes the bill, it’s certainly no surprise to hear some police officials say they don’t want to be told they must identify by race those they stop and why they stopped them. LAPD Chief Bernard Parks is one of those officials. He flatly says that the LAPD doesn’t racially profile and sees no need to collect any figures on stops by race. The always politically cautious Davis almost certainly is listening to those voices. How else to explain his inaction?

But Davis’ signature on the bill would be a big step toward proving or disproving whether police departments use racial profiles to harass and intimidate blacks and Latinos on the highways. His signature would also spur reluctant and timid officials in other states to pass similar laws.