POLICE BIAS CAN'T BE IGNORED

Ten months ago, Montreal police chief Michel Sarrazin said formally that
the practice known as racial profiling is officially against police policy.
Now the issue is in the headlines again, after Quebec Court Judge Juanita
Westmoreland-Traore threw out drug charges against a young black man,
because she found police had been unduly suspicious of him.

The Crown might yet choose to appeal the decision, which was made by
someone who was well known, before she became Quebec's first black judge in
1999, for her advocacy work in human rights issues. However that goes, the
case of Alexer Campbell has now been eclipsed by a broader issue: the way
police deal with, and are perceived to deal with, visible-minority Montrealers.

It's worth noting, first of all, that "racial profiling" is not really the
mot juste. Profiling suggests deliberate development of a conscious policy
of prejudice. Nobody is accusing the Montreal police of that. An older,
simpler term seems more appropriate here. What is at issue now in Montreal,
transcending this one case, is the recurrent question of racial bias on the
part of police officers.

In Campbell's case, the judge chose to reject some police testimony, and
disputes about what really happened can complicate any case. But nobody
denies that there is an underlying problem. In one of the too-few
communications to filter out of the police department's fortress
headquarters since this issue surfaced, assistant chief Jacques Lelievre
acknowledged that when some officers "see a black guy in a Lexus, they
assume he's in a gang."

Such bias is doubly damaging. Every community has its criminals, and
legitimate concern over prejudice can easily complicate and discourage
equally legitimate police work. There might also be repercussions for other
legal cases.

What's really at issue now is how common this kind of pre-judgment -
"driving while black," as it is bitterly known - really is in our police
force, and what the department is doing to wipe it out.

Last year, when Sarrazin set out his wordily comprehensive ban on "any
action ... which rests upon factors such as race ... without real motive or
without reasonable suspicion," the flashpoint was for-no-apparent-reason
searches of Hispanic and Greek youths. But it was Peter Flegel of the group
Black Youth in Action who asked the key question: How will police officers
who violate this policy be punished? We still don't know the answer.

Where do police and the public go from here? The police department's
communications strategy on this tinderbox of a subject has been
unsophisticated, to say the least. Police must both take steps and spread
the words that they are taking steps.

It would be healthy for the force to spell out what's being done to educate
our men and women in blue on this issue. It would be heartening to hear
that visible-minority hiring is being emphasized. It would be encouraging
to see efforts, at all levels of the police hierarchy, to communicate
better with visible-minority communities and individuals.

Police and visible minorities have a common interest in sharing a
productive, respectful relationship. Everyone needs to remember that as we
all discuss this issue.