DRIVER PROFILING BILL PASSES FIRST TEST

S.J. Cops Took Lead: Measure Broadens Data Collection

SACRAMENTO -- The San Jose Police Department was lauded as the first
big-city department in California to collect data on the race of motorists
pulled over.

But critics complain that the department is not collecting information
critical to determine if there is racial bias: How many stops result in
vehicle searches.

That could change under a bill that cleared its first legislative hurdle
Tuesday. AB 788 by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Cudahy, would require
patrol officers to collect five categories of information when they make
traffic stops: the race and ethnicity of the motorist, the reason for the
stop, whether a search was conducted, whether drugs or evidence of other
illegal activity was found, and whether a citation was issued or an arrest
was made.

Data Collection Faulted

"There is a common misperception that as long as you just collect data on
the race and ethnicity of people who are stopped, that will give you the
information you need in order to evaluate whether racial profiling is
occurring," said Michelle Alexander, director of the Northern California
American Civil Liberties Union's Racial Justice Project, which supports the
measure. "That is not true."

Under the bill, law enforcement agencies would have four years to begin
collecting the data. The measure also provides, for the first time, a
statewide definition of racial profiling as considering, "in any fashion
and to any degree the race or national or ethnic origin of drivers or
passengers" in deciding which vehicles to stop. The measure also allows
victims of racial profiling to sue officers and agencies.

Of the 350 law enforcement agencies in California, about 60 are voluntarily
collecting some information about the race and ethnicity of motorists who
are pulled over.

Only about 10 of those agencies -- including Sacramento, San Francisco,
Oakland and San Diego -- already collect the information the bill would
require.

The San Jose Police Department collects data on the reason for the stop,
whether or not a report was made, and whether the stop led to a citation, a
warning or an arrest. It also tracks the race and ethnicity, the age, and
the gender of the motorists.

The department does not oppose tracking vehicle searches, Capt. Rob Davis
said. But he said it would cost the department up to $40,000 to revamp its
computer system to add another code.

Code Swap Weighed

Davis said Police Chief Bill Lansdowne is "toying" with swapping the code
that identifies a motorist's age for one that designates whether a search
was conducted. But Lansdowne and others question how effective it is to
track searches, Davis said.

"People have the idea that every time a minority driver is pulled over,
there is a search," Davis said. Instead, traffic stops result in only 7
percent of the arrests made by San Jose officers.

Concern about racial profiling ignited after numerous reports from
California and elsewhere that officers were harassing minority motorists
simply because of their race. Those led to charges that police were
creating profiles of potential criminals that used race as a key factor,
all but making a crime of "driving while black" and "driving while brown."

Police organizations oppose the measure, calling it premature. The
California Highway Patrol has been collecting racial data since July 1, 1999.

Gov. Gray Davis two years ago vetoed a similar bill that mandated data
collection. Last year, he signed a bill that created a voluntary system.

But Firebaugh said, "It has not yielded the results that were anticipated."

Police organizations also point out that a law requiring officers to
receive racial sensitivity training only went into effect Jan. 1, and that
only half of the $5 million the Legislature set aside to help fund the
training has been tapped.