POLICE MORE LIKELY TO SEARCH BLACKS, HISPANICS

SAN FRANCISCO - Latinos and blacks pulled over by the California Highway
Patrol are far more likely to be searched than white drivers, an analysis
of more than 3.3 million statewide CHP traffic stops shows.

Although members of all races were equally likely to be stopped by the CHP
between July 1999 and July 2000, Latinos were twice as likely as whites to
have their cars or personal possessions searched after being pulled over,
the agency's records show. Blacks were 1.5 times more likely to be searched
than whites, and Asians were significantly less likely to be searched after
being stopped.

The disparities were even more striking in the San Francisco Bay area,
where Latinos and blacks were searched more than 2.5 times as often as whites.

"On its face, the data suggest that officers are targeting Latinos and
African-Americans," said Kevin Johnson, a law professor and associate dean
at the University of California at Davis Law School, who specializes in
racial profiling issues. "This isn't proof of racial profiling, but it
suggests that something is going on that requires some sort of an
explanation from the CHP."

CHP Commissioner Dwight "Spike" Helmick would not comment on The San
Francisco Chronicle's findings, but said the agency is looking into the
search rates and trying to determine whether there is a problem.

"I feel very strongly that the CHP is a professional organization that
treats people fairly," Helmick said. "I want to look at the numbers, and if
it turns out that some class of people is being treated unfairly, I want to
address that."

Two years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action
lawsuit charging that the CHP was routinely stopping a disproportionate
number of minority drivers for minor vehicle offenses and then asking
permission to search their cars.

As part of a nationwide drug interdiction program called "Operation
Pipeline," the suit contends, the CHP was using a set of vague "indicators"
to identify people who officers believe match the profiles of drug couriers.

According to a 1998 CHP training manual, those indicators range from bumper
stickers that say "God is my co-pilot" to vehicles with high mileage and
"mismatched occupants," a category ACLU attorneys say includes interracial
couples.

"The CHP has snagged a lot of law-abiding people in their big net," said
Edward Hollingshed, a 63-year-old black living in Merced. Hollingshed filed
a racial profiling complaint with the ACLU after being stopped by the CHP
seven times in 40 days in a new red Cougar he bought in February 1999.

Hollingshed said five of the stops resulted in his car being searched,
including one case in which he was held at gunpoint by the officers. Three
of the stops resulted in traffic tickets. But Hollingshed said police never
found any reason to arrest him.

The computer analysis of CHP traffic stops made between July 1999 and July
2000 found that:

Men were six times more likely to be searched than women. Once pulled over,
white men stood a 1-in-61 chance of being searched, black men stood a
1-in-37 chance and Hispanic men stood a 1-in-29 chance.

Forty-year-old white men were the type of driver most often stopped on
California highways, but 25-year-old Latino men were the type searched most
often by the CHP, even though Latinos make up a smaller portion of the
population.

Blacks and Latinos were arrested 57 percent more often than whites. They
were also nearly 1.35 times more likely to be searched and then let go with
no arrest.

Whites accounted for about 55 percent of both enforcement stops and
citations given, while they make up about 51 percent of the state's adult
population. But the ACLU and other experts argue that it is not valid to
compare the races of those stopped to the state's population, because
minorities may be less likely than whites to own and drive cars.

Some criminal justice experts have argued that police are justified in
searching minorities more often than whites because minorities are more
often arrested.

Lawyers for the ACLU argue that this logic creates a 'self-fulfilling
prophecy.'