MINORITY STOPS SHOW DISPARITY

More Blacks, Hispanics Pulled Over In Overwhelmingly White Counties

More than one-third of those stopped in 11 counties heavily patrolled
by an OHP drug interdiction unit were black or Hispanic, despite the
fact that populations in those areas are overwhelmingly white,
records show.

In Garvin County, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's Special Operations
Troop, called Troop SO, stopped Hispanics at a rate 14 times their
population in the county. In Mayes County, 12 percent of those
stopped by the drug interdiction troop were black, while the county's
black population is less than 1 percent.

The disparities occur when measuring those stopped by Troop SO
against the populations in those counties, according to 2000 Census
data.

Many of the stops made by the drug interdiction unit involve
out-of-state residents. There is no data available to show the racial
makeup of people driving on the interstates patrolled in those
counties.

The World studied data regarding more than 34,000 warning tickets
issued by the unit in an 11-county area where it issues nearly all of
its warning tickets. The data covers fiscal years 1996 through 2000
and was supplied by the OHP as part of a federal lawsuit by a black
Army sergeant.

In that suit, Sgt. Rossano Gerald alleged he and his then-12-year-old
son were stopped and searched for more than two hours because of
their race. Gerald was given a warning ticket for failure to signal a
lane change and no drugs were found.

The agency agreed to pay $75,000 to settle that lawsuit Wednesday,
avoiding a trial on whether two troopers had conducted an illegal
search and seizure during the traffic stop. Both troopers, Branson
Perry and Bob Colbert, are assigned to Troop SO.

Though the settlement had been sealed, the OHP agreed to make it
public last week after repeated requests from the Tulsa World.

The lawsuit examined the data on warning tickets because the
plaintiffs alleged that troopers searching for drugs often stop
minorities for minor infractions, issue a warning ticket and then
conduct a search.

An affidavit filed by Richard Allen, state NAACP president, claims
that: "Law enforcement authorities, including and often the Oklahoma
Highway Patrol . . . allege that some traffic violation has been
committed, but they issue no citations. Instead, they shine their
lights through our members' cars, search the cars, and sometimes have
drug-sniffing dogs search the cars. When they find no drugs, they
release the vehicle without issuing citations."

The NAACP was a party to the lawsuit, along with the American Civil
Liberties Union.

Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks denies that charge, saying the
patrol does not engage in racial profiling. Ricks said troop
commanders review warnings and citations data by race each quarter.

"If it gets out of line, we want to know why," he said.

In fact, in the federal suit, U.S. District Judge David L. Russell
threw out claims of racial profiling by the OHP, saying there was not
enough evidence to show that a pattern existed.

But Reggie Shuford, an attorney for the ACLU, which filed the suit
with Gerald, said that's because the patrol does not keep statistics
on how many minorities it stops and searches.

Ricks said that the patrol keeps no data on those who are searched.
Individual reports indicate whether a search was conducted in some
cases.

That practice was criticized by Dr. James Fyfe, professor of criminal
justice at Temple University and a former New York Police Department
officer. Fyfe has testified in numerous trials regarding racial
profiling and was hired by the ACLU for the Gerald lawsuit to examine
the practices of the OHP.

"Instead of recording all such stops and attempts to search vehicles,
the Oklahoma Highway Patrol apparently records only cases in which
arrests are made or tickets or warnings are issued."

Shuford agreed.

"Their denial is really not based upon any meaningful data. . . .
Data can be beneficial to both sides. If they are not doing it, they
can prove that. If they are, it can help them stamp it out."

At least eight states have passed laws requiring authorities to
collect data on the races of those who are stopped and searched,
including Kansas and Missouri. The Texas Legislature also recently
approved such a bill.

A requirement for data collection in Oklahoma was originally part of
a racial profiling measure passed last session but was stripped out
after opposition from law enforcement. One of the sponsors of that
law, Rep. Opio Toure, D-Oklahoma City, has said he will ask for an
interim study on whether law enforcement agencies should be required
to collect data on stops by race.

The Special Operations Troop is responsible for drug interdiction
work, mainly along interstates 35, 40 and 44 as well as U.S. 75.
Ricks said troopers selected for the unit "don't go out and pick on
people" but merely enforce traffic laws and then look for signs of
drug activity.

"The people that are put into that unit are the people we call
high-activity troopers. . . . They make three or four times the stops
that other people do and they have been trained in recognizing the
conduct" of those who transport drugs.

Ricks said members of the troop do not take race into consideration
at all when deciding which drivers to stop.

But figures do show disparities in the stops of blacks and Hispanics
by Troop SO in the 11 counties where the troop wrote 86 percent of
its warning tickets.

While blacks make up 8 percent of the state's population, they made
up 12 percent of those who received warning tickets from the unit.

The disparities are particularly high among Hispanics. While
Hispanics make up about 5 percent of the state's population, they
made up 23 percent of those who received warning tickets from Troop
SO, according to the World's study.

Ricks said that many of those stopped by the troop are from other states.

When trying to examine that issue for all other state troopers, no
data exists. Except for the Special Operations Troop, the Highway
Patrol records the race of Hispanic drivers as white when issuing
citations, according to Gene Thaxton, manager of telecommunications
with the Department of Public Safety.

And because the patrol does not keep the race of out-of-state drivers
in its citations database, the race of about one in four drivers
receiving citations from other troopers during that five-year period
is recorded as "unknown."

Aside from possibly disparate treatment of minorities by Troop SO,
the Gerald lawsuit charged that the OHP discounts any complaints of
racial profiling against troopers. Records reviewed by the World show
that no trooper has been disciplined in the past five years for
improperly stopping or searching a minority driver.

In November, a 15-year Tulsa police officer filed the first complaint
under the racial profiling law. The officer, Keenan Meadors, stated
in a letter to Ricks that a state trooper harassed and threatened him
during an Aug. 25 traffic stop. Meadors claimed that he had been
stopped due to his race.

In a letter to Meadors, Ricks states: "There is no independent
evidence which supports your allegation that the traffic stop was
pretextual (race based) in nature." He states that a civilian riding
with Trooper Jeremiah Hoyt "corroborates the account given by Trooper
Hoyt."

However, Ricks' letter states that "the trooper became engaged in an
argumentative posture with you. This will not be tolerated.
Administrative action has commenced to correct this deficiency."