Police back study on race profiling

Monday, April 9, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Law enforcement officials in Las Vegas and Reno have endorsed a bill authorizing a study of whether police stop black and Hispanic drivers more often than white motorists.

Lt. James Nadeau of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office said his department and the Metro Police Department "want to be a part" of the study proposed by Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee heard testimony Friday on Assembly Bill 500 and is scheduled to take action Thursday.

"Being a minority riding down the street is scary," said the Rev. Gary Hunter, a black minister in Las Vegas. "I'm more scared in America than I am in a foreign country."

The bill would require officers to record each traffic stop; the violation; the race, sex and age of the driver; whether the immigration status of the driver was requested; the number of occupants in the car; whether a search was done and items seized; and whether a warning or a citation was issued.

The statistics would have to be compiled by Clark and Washoe county agencies and the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Dick Kirkland, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, said the Nevada Highway Patrol was already gathering this information. He said he thinks the results will defend the practices of the patrol.

Hunter said the bill should also include a study on the practices of casino police, such as not allowing minorities in parking lots.

The bill gained the support of the Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Though only a study, Williams said, the measure would be a "huge step in eliminating racial profiling."

Latinos and African-Americans between 18 and 34 are believed to be groups stopped most often and questioned by authorities, Williams said.

Williams said he hoped law enforcement would not resent this study, which is not meant to penalize them.

Chief Assistant Attorney General Tom Patton said his office is working on ways to gather the statistics. But he said the Nevada Highway Patrol makes 300,000 stops a year in Washoe and Clark counties, and Metro makes 600,000 traffic stops year.

Patton said the data must be transmitted electronically to the attorney general's office, because it could never handle the paperwork.

Patton said a resolution now in Congress would withhold federal highway funds from states that don't adopt laws stopping racial profiling.