RACIAL PROFILING GETTING A FOCUS

Several Cities In The Region Have Officially Prohibited Practice

Franklin will be the most recent of many southcentral Kentucky cities to
officially prohibit racial profiling as a practice by its police
department. Lewisburg City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the
activity in August, the first city in southcentral Kentucky to do so.

The vote last week at Franklin City Commission formally put a ban on the
practice that many across the country have coined "DWB" - driving while black.

Franklin City Manager Tom Gordon said the vote was not spurred by any
specific incident, but rather by a Kentucky Senate Bill which requires
police agencies to adopt a law prohibiting the practice.

"We've never had it as a practice," Gordon said. "It really won't mean any
change for our officers."

While the Bowling Green Police Department maintains its officers do not
engage in the practice, the city has not yet passed a formal ordinance.

So far, no police agency in Kentucky has openly admitted using the practice
of conducting traffic stops based solely on someone's race or ethnicity,
but complaints of it from all corners of Kentucky are common, according to
Corey Bellamy, spokesman for the Kentucky Attorney General's Office.

The Attorney General's Office established a hotline earlier this year
specifically for such allegations following highly publicized complaints of
such activity in Louisville and Owensboro.

"The Attorney General's Office receives numerous complaints about numerous
issues, including complaints against law enforcement officials," Bellamy said.

The office acts as a clearinghouse for complaints and forwards them either
back to the department for an internal investigation or to the U.S. Justice
Department in the event of an alleged civil rights violation.

A formal state policy prohibiting racial profiling will be administered by
the Kentucky Justice Cabinet, which under law will grant local agencies
throughout the state 180 days to adopt their own policies, Bellamy said.

If local police departments do not adopt a policy, it is likely they will
not receive annual Kentucky Law Enforcement Police Fund grants of $3,000
for each officer, he said.

Russellville and Horse Cave police departments are two of 25 across the
state that are participating in a statewide survey of racial profiling
instigated by Gov. Paul Patton's executive order.

The survey, which began in January, involves officers completing additional
paperwork following every traffic stop. Categories on the forms include the
race of the stopped driver, reasons for the stop and total time the stop took.

Agencies in the probe were chosen in order to get a variety of city sizes
and geographic location across the states and include police agencies from
Henderson, Bardstown, Paducah, Pikeville, Elizabethtown and Owensboro.

In addition to Patton's order in March, the issue recently has seen
national attention.

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington joined a
bipartisan group of lawmakers and law enforcement authorities to pledge
their support for national legislation outlawing the practice.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has endorsed a federal data collection to
study the issue.