HIGHWAY BIAS UNMASKED

Records show racial profiling was worse than critics imagined.

In New Jersey, release of 91,000 pages of internal state records this week
revealed a shocking reality: State troopers routinely applied the principles
of apartheid in their war on drugs.

The revelations expose New Jersey's government to national embarrassment.
"Racial profiling" was routine for decades, and top state officials, even
when confronted with evidence of it, steadfastly denied its existence.

But no state or local law-enforcement agency in America should gloat. The
documents show that such bias was commonplace and, unless aggressively
challenged, it is extremely difficult to detect and eradicate. The New
Jersey experience provides compelling reasons for Congress to pass a law
banning racial profiling.

Last year, President Clinton signed an executive order requiring police
agencies that receive federal money for drug interdiction to keep track of
the race of anyone stopped or searched. In Florida, state Sen. Kendrick
Meek, D-Miami, tried unsuccessfully to pass a similar state law.

But the lesson in the New Jersey experience for Florida police and lawmakers
is that it is folly to ignore complaints about racial profiling. In New
Jersey, blacks and Hispanics complained for years about unnecessary stops,
searches and harassment. Their complaints were summarily dismissed as
unfounded.

New Jersey's governor and attorney general acknowledged that race was a
factor, but a legitimate one, they argued. They also insisted that it was
never the sole reason for stops and searches. The officials said they relied
on procedures first developed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
on identifying possible drug dealers and couriers.

But a treasure trove of just-released documents and audits shows the
opposite to be true. For example, 80 percent of all stops and searches by
several trooper stations for three years was of black and Hispanic drivers,
although those drivers made up less than 25 percent of those on the
highways.

Such calculated bias is unconscionable; excuses unsupportable. Florida and
federal lawmakers now must support legislation to see that it is stopped.