MORGANTON WANTS NO PART OF PROFILING

New Policy Increases The Information Taken By Police At Traffic Stops

The Morganton Department of Public Safety has introduced a practice
designed to prevent racial profiling during traffic stops.

The policy hinges on a new form that officers must fill out when they stop
a driver, Chief Robbie Williams said

On the form, officers record information about the driver - including race
- - along with the reason for the stop, whether a search was performed and
what kind of action was taken, in addition to other facts. The data will
allow the department to identify whether officers are pulling over a
disproportionate number of people of a certain race.

Williams said racial profiling has not been a problem in Morganton. Rather,
the policy reflects a desire to make sure it does not become one.

"We did not do this because (racial profiling) was a problem or a perceived
problem," he said. "Basically, we as a department decided to implement a
policy forbidding racial profiling."

A general order outlining the policy was issued Sept. 1.

The action by Morganton's public safety department comes just months before
a state bill requiring law enforcement agencies to collect similar data
goes into effect, on Jan. 1.

Williams said his department wanted to be a forerunner in preventing racial
profiling by adopting its own order.

The N.C. Highway Patrol also has been collecting data on traffic stops for
about a year and a half.

The Morganton Department of Public Safety's computer staff will create
programs to track the data, Williams said. Supervisors will review the
information regularly, and the department's command staff will go over the
data each quarter.

"We want to make sure all traffic stops are managed appropriately,"
Williams said.