Backlash feared over racial-profiling law

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2001 | 11:24 a.m.

Keeping track The state attorney general's office has suggested a form for police agencies in Clark and Washoe counties to track stops to look for trends of racial profiling. That form will include:

A hearing to get public feedback on the new racial profiling form will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 10 in the County Commission Chambers at the County Government Building. For more information, call (775) 684-1100.

Sheriff Jerry Keller met with Metro Police supervisors Tuesday to try to head off any possible officer-initiated slowdown in traffic stops because of a new racial-profiling law.

Officers after each stop will have to fill out questionnaires that record information in 17 categories, including the race of the driver, location of the stop, reasons for any search or arrest and any special circumstances.

The cards are part of a new state law, authored by Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, that requires the study to gauge the extent of racial profiling, the term used when police use race as a factor in initiating stops.

The Metro Police Department currently records race on arrest reports and traffic citations, but it does not compile statistics based on those.

"People feel there are problems. We're not pointing fingers, but we've got some problems," Williams said. "I would be happy if it was determined racial profiling didn't happen, but I think the information gathered may point that it does."

Starting Oct. 1 law enforcement officers in Clark and Washoe counties and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers must fill out a form for a two-month trial period. The form will be evaluated in December to determine if the necessary information was obtained. The officers will use the form next year, and the results will be forwarded to the 2003 Legislature.

Keller said he is concerned some officers may avoid the issue by just not pulling people over.

"The fear is that it will result in what is called 'de-policing,' " Undersheriff Richard Winget said. "The result is officers, out of fear of being accused of being racist, don't make the stops they ordinarily would have."

Keller and Winget are sending word to officers that filling out the card should not interfere with whom they stop.

Officers shouldn't see the cards as punishment, Williams said, but as a way to determine whether there is racial profiling.

"I hope they do the right thing and fill out the cards honestly," Williams said.

Keller said he hopes training and discussions will lead officers to fill out the cards honestly.

But Winget acknowledged there will be no way to check to see if the cards match the traffic stops.

The cards do not give a specific address or time, but only the beat where the stop occurred and the shift the officer was working. The officers' names also are not on the card.

There is nothing to keep officers from marking every form as a white person, but an analysis of the cards will show abnormalities by beat and shift, Winget said.

A draft of the form was released last week by the state attorney general's office, which will seek comment on it before the final version is put into use, said Thomas P. Patton, first assistant attorney general.

The form requires the officers to use their "perception" to determine the race and age of the drivers. The officers are not allowed to question motorists about their race and cannot use identification or other documents to determine the race of drivers. Officers must also reveal if they questioned the immigration status of the drivers, if searches were conducted and the reason for the stop.

"It's designed to identify what the officer's thought process was," Patton said. "That way it gets to the officer's motivation."

The perception of the officers about whom they stop, and not necessarily the reality, will show if there is bias being used to stop someone, Patton said.

Proponents of the new law said the study will help locate areas and units that may be using racial profiling.

"I'm not saying that all or even most officers are racially profiling, but it does happen," said Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. "We don't need a study to show that there is racial profiling. We need (a study) to determine how often it occurs and whether or not there are units or locations where the problem is particularly acute."

Keller said he is skeptical that looking at whom Metro officers pull over during nearly 250,000 stops a year is a true gauge of racial profiling or a way to handle the problem.

"I don't believe counting traffic stops is any measure of the relationship between the officers and the public," he said. "We have to address not only the reality of bias, but also the perception of bias."

Winget acknowledges racial profiling exists, but he said the the internal affairs department investigates complaints of racially motivated stops.

In addition, Winget noted, the Citizen Review Board was created as an independent body to hear complaints in case residents don't trust the police to investigate their own.

Peck said he and other ACLU officials have tried to address racial profiling with Metro officials, only to have police offer inadequate explanations of incidents when blacks and Hispanics are stopped.

In recent months two racial-profiling lawsuits have been filed in federal court accusing Metro in one and Metro and Henderson police in the other of bias.

Robert Wilkins, a black Harvard University-educated lawyer, has been talking about racial profiling for nearly a decade, since he and his family were stopped and detained for hours in western Maryland in 1992 on their way home from a funeral. He recently testified before Congress on the issue.

Wilkins said departments should not be wary of documenting traffic stops.

"You can't manage what you don't measure. There obviously is a lot of anecdotal evidence," said Wilkins, who is with a Washington-based nonprofit organization seeking to build an black history museum. "It doesn't do anyone any good to just write off a large number of complaints."

Wilkins also said that not every minority stopped for a traffic violation is the victim of racial profiling.

"There are people who undoubtedly are pulled over and claim it was just because they were black, even if they were speeding," Wilkins said. "When we take some real steps to show the system is fair, then you will be able to lessen some of that hostility within the community."

Williams said he sees the study as the first step to try to end racial profiling in Nevada.

"I'm not taking the opinion 'Does it exist?,' but 'How do we deal with it and how do we eliminate it?' " Williams said. "I think it's a sad commentary that African-American parents got to the point that they teach their kids 'This is what you do when you are stopped by the police.'

"They feel it is necessary their kids know they will be stopped, but it is the beginning of developing a distrust of the police."