NEW JERSEY'S TROOPER SCANDAL

The racial profiling and drug interdiction offenses at the New Jersey
State Police keep looking worse and worse. It was outrageous when
state troopers were found to be stopping and searching a
disproportionate number of black and Hispanic motorists on the New
Jersey Turnpike in an effort to intercept illegal drugs. Now it turns
out that the State Police have enlisted hotel workers along the
turnpike to spy on guests and report behavior as common as speaking
Spanish. This civil liberties nightmare has all the earmarks of a
program that has spun out of control. a.. Thus it can only be welcome
that the Federal Department of Justice has decided that there are
grounds to file a civil suit against the State Police for racial
discrimination, and that New Jersey's Attorney General, Peter G.
Verniero, has agreed to negotiate a settlement. The two-year
investigation by Justice initially focused on the practice of singling
out motorists for stops and searches based on their skin color. Given
the mounting evidence of improper State Police operations, it is
imperative that Justice use this hammer to demand a thorough overhaul
that will root out the institutional racism that seems to permeate the
agency.

For years, blacks and Hispanics have complained that they have been
subject to illegal racial profiling by state troopers -- and for just
as many years, New Jersey officials vehemently denied that such
practices existed. Only last week did Mr. Verniero and Gov. Christine
Todd Whitman finally acknowledge those patterns of discrimination
after Mr. Verniero issued a report on highway stops and searches.

This week The Times's David Kocieniewski reported on the little-known
hotel-motel program operated by the State Police's drug bureau. The
program, begun in the early 1990's, recruits motel workers, mostly
along the New Jersey Turnpike, to inform on guests who might be drug
traffickers. The program trains the workers to report to police on
travelers with certain characteristics, such as having Florida license
plates or paying with cash. The troopers would look through credit
card receipts and guest registries without guest permission, and would
even offer rewards for tips that lead to arrests. Although police
officials deny that racial profiling is used, several hotel workers
who have gone through the training say they were told to look upon
Spanish-speakers with greater suspicion.

Given the agency's proven use of race-based criteria in traffic stops,
it is hard to believe that race would not be used in the hotel program
as well. But whatever the case, the hotel operation offers a
disturbing window into the police agency's philosophy. In the name of
crime-fighting, the agency has created a vast surveillance network
that engulfs large numbers of innocent hotel guests. Mr. Verniero's
office says it is reviewing all drug interdiction programs. The fact
that this program has been in place for nearly a decade without a
review shows how much institutional reform is needed.