RACIAL PROFILING NOT CERTAIN, CANDIDATES SAY

Murphy, Roberts In Accord On Study

San Diego mayoral candidates Dick Murphy and Ron Roberts said yesterday it
is too soon to conclude that city police target black and Latino drivers
for stops and searches because of their skin color.

Their remarks came a day after Police Chief David Bejarano released a study
showing officers stop and search black and Latino drivers at a higher rate
than whites and Asians.

In comments broadcast on "The Roger Hedgecock Show" on KOGO radio, the
candidates said there is not enough evidence to conclude that police engage
in a practice known as racial profiling.

The report, released Thursday, was done for the Police Department by three
academics who tracked more than 90,000 traffic stops between January and June.

It found that more than 40 percent of motorists pulled over were black or
Latino and that they also accounted for nearly 70 percent of motorists
searched during traffic stops.

The survey also showed blacks and Latinos had a 10 percent chance of being
searched during stops, compared with a 3 percent chance for whites or
Asians, and had a 3 percent chance of arrest, vs. a 1 percent chance for
whites or Asians.

Both candidates were asked by Hedgecock, a former San Diego mayor, whether
they believe San Diego police stop motorists "because of the color of their
skin."

"We don't have the information to reach a solid conclusion on that," said
Roberts, a member of the county Board of Supervisors. "I read the
newspapers this morning, and I agree: We need to ask some questions.

"There may be something to this, but I don't think that the information
that I've seen right now can lead you to that conclusion. If there is some
conclusive information, then I think it's incumbent on the mayor to make
sure that the policies are changed."

Murphy, a Superior Court judge on unpaid leave for the campaign, said
racial profiling may occur in isolated cases but is "probably not
pervasive." He agreed with Roberts that officers often do not know
motorists' race until after stops have been made.

"I'd like to think that the San Diego Police Department is not doing that,"
Murphy said. "I think it is a department that has been well-run and that
has tried to be sensitive to the diversity of the city."

Bejarano expressed concern Thursday but said more study is needed, while
other police officers said race plays no role in traffic stops. Some
community activists said more research is in order, while others said the
data prove that racial profiling happens in San Diego.

On another topic, Roberts expressed a loss of confidence in a core tenet of
the Padres ballpark project, saying the city erred by basing public
financing of the stalled enterprise on hotel-room taxes.

Roberts called it "inherently wrong" to link public financing of the
project to the hotel-room tax. That tax revenue is the core of city plans
to repay, with interest, up to $299 million in ballpark construction bond
proceeds.

"I think it was a mistake from the start to rely on that source," Roberts said.

In a May interview, Roberts expressed concern that there is only so much
hotel-tax money to go around but said the city's ballpark debt-service
projections looked sound. In December, he said he would have voted for the
city's financing plan, but he warned against spiraling costs.

Yesterday, he said he would support ballpark bonds secured by new tax
revenues generated within the downtown ballpark redevelopment district.

The hotel-tax money is now in doubt because of trouble financing a major
waterfront hotel, expected to fuel about 25 percent of the city's annual
ballpark debt service, which is estimated at roughly $25 million.

With redevelopment financing, Roberts said, "I think the hotel issue can be
removed immediately."

Murphy called it "not a bad idea," but said it may be unworkable because
changing the project's financial structure would violate the voter-approved
memorandum of understanding between the city and the Padres.