RESEARCH EXAMINES OFFICERS' ATTITUDES

Stanford Study Focuses On Racial Profiling Beliefs

Seeking hard evidence of the practice, Stanford researchers question
deputies in San Mateo County about how stereotypes affect them on the
job; sheriff says results show `there isn't a major problem here.'

A face is turned slightly backward toward the police officer walking
toward the driver's side window. Make it a dark brown face, brown
eyes, with a smile, a nervous smile.

What does the officer -- one hand by his gun, the other reaching for
a license -- see in that face during the traffic stop?

Is it a handsome face? Or is it ugly? Is it a typical face? The face
of a criminal? What exactly does the face of a criminal look like?

Earlier this year, Stanford University researchers asked such
questions to San Mateo County sheriff's deputies in a unique racial
profiling study.

``When people talk about racial profiling, they frequently assume
officers are racists, that they tend to associate black people with
crime,'' Stanford psychology Professor Jennifer Eberhardt said. ``We
were interested in trying to see if we can find empirical evidence.''

Researchers showed about 150 sheriff's deputies, correctional
officers and detectives photographs of faces and asked them to rate
each on whether it fit a racial stereotype, was attractive or looked
criminal.

Among the results:

Those who took the test rated black and white faces about equally
``attractive'' and ``criminal.'' But they were slightly more
confident about their ratings of white faces.

Officers rated black faces somewhat higher than white for fitting a
``stereotype.''

Eberhardt and San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley agreed that the
results are difficult to interpret. They are not intended to show --
nor do they -- whether sheriff's department employees are racist.

Eberhardt declined to release the rest of the results or any
conclusions, saying that it would preclude her from publishing them
in a scientific paper as she planned to do.

Horsley has his own conclusions.

``I would say it shows that there isn't a major problem here,''
Horsley said, noting that no one had made charges that his department
practiced racial profiling.

``I think most of us grow up with people who are much like us, and we
are comfortable with people much like us,'' the sheriff said. ``When
we come up against people who are not like us, we have more
difficulty in judging.''

There is a perception that police officers, fishing for crimes such
as drug or gun possession, pull over minorities more frequently than
whites for routine traffic violations.

Law enforcement, the sheriff said -- echoing many in law enforcement
- -- had a tricky balance to maintain: avoid racial profiling and
effectively fight crime. Sometimes, Horsley said, new officers were
so frightened of racial profiling that they hardly dared to make any
traffic stops.

Horsley's officers are required to note the race of those people who
are stopped. And that is a trend that is sweeping the country and Bay
Area.

About 55 departments and 17 sheriff's departments statewide have
applied to receive part of a $5 million California Highway Patrol
grant so that, like the CHP, they can measure the racial breakdowns
of the citizens they deal with.

Locally, San Jose -- one of the first police departments to track car
stops by race -- Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Belmont, Half Moon Bay and
the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office are among departments who
either received the grants or are in the process of applying for one.

The concept of ``DWB'' -- driving while black, or brown -- has
simmered as an issue for years. But it made national headlines in
1998 when two New Jersey state troopers fired shots at four unarmed
minority men after a motor vehicle stop. The following year, New
Jersey's attorney general admitted troopers practiced racial
profiling.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked Congress to fund a
national study on racial profiling.

Eberhardt said she is planning future studies with other law
enforcement agencies. And the San Mateo sheriff's department plans to
hold a series of community meetings on racial profiling. No dates
have been set.