PROFILING THE POLICE

DENVER - Traffic stops and street encounters with law enforcement
officers will have new meaning next summer as the Denver Police
Department takes a closer look at itself to determine how beat cops
treat Hispanics, blacks and other minorities.

As part of a legal settlement reached recently with the American
Civil Liberties Union and several plaintiffs allegedly mistreated by
police after a high school dance in 1996, the Denver Police
Department has agreed to examine what takes place during traffic and
pedestrian stops. Department officials hope to gather data on the
racial and ethnic backgrounds of those stopped to determine whether
racial profiling exists within the department.

Termed "Driving While Black" by minorities who have long argued that
law enforcement officers scrutinize people of color unfairly during
routine traffic stops, the practice of racial profiling is believed
to be rampant across the country. The New Jersey attorney general
recently released 91,000 pages of internal state records that
indicated 80 percent of the automobile searches carried out by state
troopers during the past 10 years were conducted on cars driven by
minorities.

Colorado Springs does not collect such information. Instead, Police
Chief Lorne Kramer said, his department has spent years developing
strong ties within the minority community.

"We've taken a proactive stance here," Kramer said. "We meet with
community groups and we have an open dialogue. We want to make sure
we maintain a level of trust."

As such, the chief said minorities have expressed their concerns to
his staff, and officers have visited area high schools to get a sense
of what teen-agers think of the police.

Also, Kramer said his department has included diversity training for
staff members and for recruits.

"We are starting to bring minority members into our recruitment class
to have a discussion with new officers to set the tone of the impact
on minorities who are stopped by police," Kramer said.

Data collection alone won't solve the problem of racial profiling,
the chief said.

"Keeping more data is a simple reaction to the problem," Kramer said.
"If there is a negative perception within the minority community, the
data won't help."

Data collection has had varying results elsewhere. A preliminary
review of 90,000 traffic stops during the first six months of 2000 by
the San Diego Police Department indicated that blacks and Hispanics
were over-represented in vehicle stops. And just last month in
Colorado, U.S. District Judge John Kane approved in concept an
agreement to spend a $600,000 racial profiling settlement in Eagle
County to educate police about the issue.

The Eagle County settlement stemmed from a class-action lawsuit by
400 people stopped on Interstate 70 during the 1980s because they fit
the racial profile of drug dealers.

Though Denver minorities have long complained that police officers
treat people of color differently from whites, there has been little
statistical evidence to support the belief. That could change once
the department collects background information on traffic and
pedestrian stops beginning June 1.

"The actual instances of racial profiling are rare," said Marco
Vasquez, a captain with the Denver Police Department in charge of
organizing the data collection. "Very few officers will make contacts
based on the race of an individual. But what happens more often is an
officer will make a contact and may not fully explain why the person
was stopped."

Anecdotal information from minorities in Denver and across the nation
suggests otherwise.

In New Jersey, for example, documents from the state police show
racial profiling was an ingrained law enforcement tool. The records
released by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office included a
statement by one trooper who claimed superior officers "schooled him"
in racial profiling.

As yet, it is impossible to say if such a culture exists in Denver,
but many residents who live in minority neighborhoods feel something
is wrong.

"I've seen it with my own eyes," said Gene Roach, a plaintiff in the
1996 high school melee case who is a guardian of several black teens
in northeast Denver. "I've seen police stop them (minorities) right
in front of their house. They stop and detain them and write crazy
traffic tickets. It is the kind of stuff most of us would not put up
with for a minute."

Police officials have been aware of such concerns for some time.
Vasquez said the ACLU settlement was just the latest event to warrant
a thorough examination.

"It has been something on the horizon that needed to be addressed," he said.

More than 300 law enforcement departments across the nation are
already involved in racial profiling data collection.

Denver police are still unsure how the data will be gathered.
Officers may simply note their observations after traffic stops
rather than ask individuals about their ethnic backgrounds.

"We want to get the information without adding a burden to the
officer or raising emotions," Vasquez said. "The officers will
probably put down their perception of what the race is and not ask
the person."

The data will be analyzed, but even then police may not know what the
figures really show. Police officials in San Diego say their raw
numbers indicate minorities are over-represented in traffic stops.
But the department has yet to fully digest the numbers to determine
whether racial profiling is to blame.

"We don't know how to interpret the data," said Rulette Armstead, an
assistant chief in San Diego. "We are on the Mexican border and we
have a lot of tourists and people in the military here, so we don't
know who makes up the driving public. The numbers show African
Americans and Hispanics are stopped in larger numbers than others
are. But we don't have a benchmark by which to measure this."

Denver officials expect to run across similar problems once the data
here are collected. All the same, no matter what the numbers reveal,
police leaders say the work will show the public that the city is
serious about racial profiling and interested in finding ways to
eliminate the problem, if it exists.

"The information will be illuminating," said Joe Brann, a retired
police chief from Hayward, Calif., now working as a consultant with
the Denver police. "It will ensure that the department and the public
understand what is really going on in respect to police contact and
interaction. The department will be better able to explain its
actions and the community will understand why the contacts were made."

At the very least, Brann said, the data collection will make beat
officers more aware of the situation.

"We can't just gather the data," he said. "We must understand the
reasons behind it and see if it is across-the-board or the acts of
individual officers."

Officer behavior is just as important as raw numbers, said Ida
Gillis, president of the National Organization of Black Law
Enforcement Executives in Alexandria, Va.

"We hear from citizens that they feel they are not given due respect
and are not told why they were stopped by police," Gillis said. "The
attitude and behavior of the officer can escalate the situation."

Many residents in minority neighborhoods see the Denver department's
policy as a step in the right direction.

"This is not an adversarial situation," said Darrell Watson,
president of the Whittier Neighborhood Association, who is part of a
police task force addressing the racial profiling issue. "We are
working with the police, and this shows they are willing to
communicate with the community."

Watson knows the issue well.

"I was stopped in my neighborhood. No reason was given for the stop,"
he said. "I assumed I was stopped because it was night and the color
of my skin."

Watson believes residents and the police will benefit from the investigation.

"This is not an attack on the police. We are not attacking them and
they are not attacking us," Watson said. "We are trying to solve a
problem."

Everyone agrees that number-crunching is just the start of a long process.

"The statistics can move the police officers and the department away
from a state of denial and into a problem-solving mode," said Mark
Silverstein, legal director with the ACLU in Denver. "I suppose it is
possible that Denver may be the exception and unlike any other major
department, Denver may find no statistical difference for people of
color. But I would be surprised if that happens."