BLACKS, HISPANICS GET MORE TRAFFIC-STOP SEARCHES

Dallas Chief Says Time Is Needed To Interpret Report Required By Law

Blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be searched during traffic stops
than whites in Dallas, according to the first racial-profiling report
compiled by the Dallas Police Department.

About one in every 28 whites stopped in Dallas was searched, compared with
one in 15 blacks and one in nine Hispanics, according to statistics
reported Monday in response to a new state law.

Other law enforcement agencies' reports showed similar findings.

Hispanics also were searched at a higher rate than whites or blacks in
Dallas County, Highland Park, University Park and McKinney. In Arlington,
Fort Worth and Denton, blacks were searched at a higher rate than Hispanics
or whites.

Dallas police officials and other law enforcement agencies were reluctant
to draw conclusions from the data, saying that it's too soon. "It's too
premature to try to draw conclusions from the data that was presented,"
Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton said. "Based on the data that we have, I
think we need to take a step back and make sure we treat everybody fairly."

The results come as Dallas and law enforcement entities statewide comply
with a law requiring annual reports regarding racial-profiling information.
A 2001 law banned the use of race or ethnicity as a basis for law
enforcement action, including stops, searches and arrests.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2002, law enforcement agencies were required to begin
collecting data on traffic stops resulting in traffic citations or arrests.
The law also required departments to establish a complaint reporting system
and implement policies and training for officers to prevent the practice.

Chief Bolton said the department needs video cameras in its patrol vehicles
to record traffic stops to provide an accurate account of what happens.

Dallas police officials anticipate receiving about 90 cameras this year
through state financing, but they are not sure where the money will come
from for the remaining patrol vehicles. The Dallas police fleet includes
more than 700 patrol vehicles.

Police officials also said the low number of racial-profiling complaints
filed last year is a good sign. In more than 880,000 total citizen
contacts, 12 complaints alleging racial profiling were filed, the report said.

Criticism

Still, council member John Loza said he found the report troubling. "The
bottom line is that if you're a minority here in the city of Dallas and you
are stopped, you're much more likely to be searched and to be arrested," he
said.

The Rev. L. Charles Stovall, chairman of Unified Organizations for Justice,
said, "The assumption is that because they're black or Hispanic, you're
going to find something."

The Dallas traffic stop data came as no surprise to Sam Walker, a criminal
justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who has written
books on police accountability.

"What we're finding consistently is that there are disparities with
African-Americans and Hispanics on who get stopped and who gets searched,"
he said.

Robert Taylor, a University of North Texas criminal justice professor who
reviewed the Dallas report, said there was not enough information to
determine whether racial profiling is occurring.

Other Agencies

The reports from other local law enforcement agencies also showed that
minorities were more likely to be searched. In Dallas County, Hispanics
were searched at nearly twice the rate of white drivers and pedestrians,
but Sgt. Don Peritz, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, said the number can
be misleading because some searches were conducted after arrests.

Hispanics cited in Highland Park had a one in four chance of being searched
in 2002, but a consultant's analysis said the numbers do not suggest that
the department has a problem with profiling, officials said. Chief Darrell
Fant, director of the Highland Park Department of Public Safety, said the
department's policy of arresting people who drive without identification
led to the higher number of searches and arrests of Hispanics.

"This will be a starting point to create a baseline for later years," Chief
Fant said. "It's hard to make a statement whether anything's wrong because
there's nothing similar to compare it to."

In Arlington, police also searched black motorists' vehicles slightly more
often than those of white or Hispanic drivers, but Arlington Police Chief
Theron Bowman said that doesn't mean officers are targeting blacks.

State Sen. Royce West, the law's author, and civil liberties groups say
they're pleased with the response of law enforcement. They said they agree
it's too early to determine what modifications need to be made to the law.

"There are certainly going to be a few bad-apple police departments, but by
and large, it would appear that departments are taking it seriously," said
Will Harrell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Texas. "The whole idea behind this racial-profiling state law is not to
point fingers. But in order to manage a problem, you have to measure it."

No Standard Method

By law, police agencies were required, for all traffic stops resulting in
citation or arrest, to record the race or ethnicity of the person, whether
a search was conducted and if it was consensual, as well as whether an
arrest occurred. The law, however, does not mandate a standardized method
of collecting data, which has led to wide variations in reporting. Many law
enforcement agencies are reluctant to draw conclusions, in part, because
census data typically do not mirror the racial breakdown of the driving
population.

"Just because you have a situation where you have an Anglo stopping people
in a particular geographical area doesn't mean you have racial profiling,"
Mr. West, D-Dallas, said.

The ACLU and other groups have endorsed the "Fair Roads Standard," which
compares racial-profiling stops to a baseline derived from census records
that show which demographic groups have access to vehicles.

Mr. Walker suggests that departments use internal benchmarks by comparing
officers with their peers who work the same geographic shift and area.

"If you find one officer who is stopping far more Hispanic drivers than his
peers, that should set into motion an internal inquiry," he said.

Another issue is determining a person's race or ethnicity. Race is not
listed on Texas driver's licenses. And some departments, including Dallas,
do not allow officers to ask a person's race, which means officers have to
rely on visual identification.

Dallas police think that may have skewed the number of white and Hispanic
traffic contacts.

One solution could be to ask for race and ethnicity when people apply or
reapply for a driver's license, Mr. West said.

Staff writers Jennifer Emily, Dave Levinthal, Ian McCann and Stephanie
Sandoval contributed to this report.