ALA. TROOPERS GET RACIAL PROFILING POLICY

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The new head of Alabama's law enforcement agency
has formally banned racial profiling by state troopers and added a new
procedure for reviewing motorists' complaints.

The policy, unveiled last week, prohibits troopers from stopping motorists
based solely on ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, economic status, age or cultural group, and mandates annual training.

"This policy clearly states that such actions will not be tolerated,"
Public Safety Director Mike Coppage said.

Coppage's move, mirroring actions by other states, drew surprise and praise
from black legislators who had expressed concerns about racial profiling in
the past.

Democratic state Sen. Charles Steele, state president of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, said he was surprised the department
didn't have a formal policy earlier. "But I commend them for bringing this
to light," he said.

Democratic state Rep. Alvin Holmes said the policy might help erase the
tarnished image state troopers have carried since civil rights clashes in
Selma in 1965.

"To see a new Public Safety director come in and take a position is
refreshing," Holmes said.

Racial profiling by law enforcement gained national attention after a 1998
shooting on the New Jersey Turnpike in which two white troopers fired on a
van occupied by four minority men, wounding three. A year after the
shooting, the New Jersey attorney general admitted troopers had engaged in
racial profiling, and the state agreed to reforms including monitoring the
races of motorists stopped by troopers.

Since then, several states have instituted similar laws or reforms aimed at
preventing racial profiling, including Texas, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Arkansas and California.

Coppage, a former Birmingham police chief who was selected by Gov. Bob
Riley in February to head the state law enforcement agency, said he wanted
to codify what had previously been an informal policy against biased-based
enforcement.

"There is no place in any professional law enforcement organization for any
type of bias-based enforcement," Coppage said.

The new policy does not prohibit officers from considering race and other
factors when they are part of a suspect's description or "otherwise validly
related to an officer's investigation of criminal activity."

Under the new policy, the department's Standards and Integrity Unit will
also make an annual review of the department's practices and enforcement
activities, including citizens' complaints. In the past, complaints about
racial profiling were reviewed by an officer's supervisor.

Any officers who practice profiling and any supervisors who condone it
could be punished with anything from a reprimand to dismissal, Coppage said.