BUSH WOULD CREATE COMMISSION TO EXAMINE POLICE PROBLEMS

If he is elected president, George W. Bush plans to create a national
commission that would examine controversies that have arisen in law
enforcement and the criminal justice system in recent years.

The commission could result in sweeping changes not seen since 1967, the
last time a U.S. president convened such a group, several law enforcement
officials and legal experts said.

Democratic candidate Al Gore did not commit to establishing a commission
but would deal with problems in a strong fashion if he saw evidence that
action was needed, said Alex Zaroulis, Gore's Missouri spokeswoman.

Bush and Gore issued statements to The Kansas City Star in response to
questions the newspaper posed about drug forfeiture abuses and in response
to a call from the International Association of Chiefs of Police for a
commission.

The police chiefs association asked the presidential candidates to support
a national commission to investigate perceived police and criminal justice
abuses. One of those issues, the association has said, is drug forfeiture.

Col. Michael D. Robinson, president of the police chiefs association and
director of the Michigan State Police, said law enforcement in America
today has lost the public's trust and confidence.

"We stand at a critical point in our history," Robinson said. "We in many
cities have worse tensions between police and the community than at any
other time in recent history."

Ray Sullivan, Bush's deputy press secretary, said the Republican candidate
expected the commission "to evaluate changing demands and challenges facing
law enforcement and our justice system."

In recent years the reputation of law enforcement and the criminal justice
system has been hammered coast to coast from such controversies as illegal
seizures, racial profiling, forced confessions from suspects, and police
beatings and shootings.

Several aspects of the judicial system also have come under fire, such as
the death penalty and crowded prisons.

Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the police chiefs association, said
the organization was pleased with Bush's support, adding that the
association hoped Gore, too, would respond to keep the issue bipartisan.

Drug forfeitures were the subject of a series of stories The Star published
in May showing police across the country were evading state laws to
improperly keep millions of dollars in cash and property seized in drug
busts and traffic stops.

Most states have laws that prohibit police from directly benefiting from
seizures in drug cases, because they see that as a dangerous conflict of
interest. Several states send the money to public education. But police are
able to keep much of the money by handing seizures off to federal agencies,
which keep a portion and return up to 80 percent to police.

Critics fear that allowing police to profit from fighting crime can lead to
other abuses such as racial profiling.

"Part of what is driving some of the racial-profiling problem is this
economic motivation to make large numbers of (traffic) stops," said John
Crew, director of the Campaign Against Racial Profiling arm of the American
Civil Liberties Union.

Vice President Gore's state, Tennessee, has some of the least stringent
state forfeiture laws in the country. Even so, the Memphis Police
Department has been under investigation by a number of agencies, including
the FBI and the state auditor, for corruption in its handling of drug
money. Last month four high-ranking employees were fired.

Gore supports existing forfeiture laws, as well as more funding for both
law enforcement and education, Zaroulis said.

The Star found that in Texas, where Bush is governor, police publicly
acknowledge that they bypass state law and use federal law, which makes it
easier for them to forfeit money and keep much of it.

Robinson said the police chiefs association began considering a national
commission as a result of its research into the racial-profiling
controversy that has exploded across the country in recent years.

"It did not take us long to recognize that there are issues that affect the
public's confidence in the entire criminal justice system," Robinson said.

The 1967 national commission under President Lyndon B. Johnson was
effective, Robinson said.

The commission worked a year and a half, producing 200 specific
recommendations involving all levels of government, as well as civic,
business and religious organizations, according to the police chiefs
association.

"The commission and its recommendations marked the beginning of a sea
change in our methods for dealing with crime and the public, and built the
framework for many of the exemplary programs that continue today,"
according to the police chiefs association.

The recommendations came at a time of rioting in many major cities,
increasing police brutality and high crime rates.

Among the recommendations were community policing, better fingerprint
recognition systems and a single, uniform police telephone number, which
has evolved into 911, officials for the police chiefs association said.

A recommendation for a national commission was met with praise from many
organizations around the country, but at the same time they cautioned that
it should not become another blue-ribbon committee report that is quickly
shelved.

For example, Eric Sterling, president of The Criminal Justice Policy Forum
in Washington and former counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, said
his organization has supported such a commission for a number of years. But
he cautioned that Congress authorized a commission after the Ruby Ridge FBI
standoff in Idaho, but its report was a "nonevent."

Crew, who has worked on police reform issues for 15 years, said unless
politicians find the will to stand up to law enforcement, the commission
recommendations would barely see daylight. He pointed to the powerful
anti-reform police organizations as a huge barrier that politicians can't
get over.

"Police misconduct persists on a widespread basis in the United States not
because we don't know the solutions," Crew said. "It's because we lack the
political will to implement those solutions. The question is whether a
presidential commission would increase or decrease that political will."

But a commission could find it difficult to bridge the huge philosophical
divide over issues such as the war on drugs, said Roger Pilon, a
constitutional expert and vice president for legal affairs with the Cato
Institute, a Libertarian think tank.

As a result, some problems are "simply intractable," said Pilon, who
nonetheless supports creation of such a commission.

The Forfeitures Endanger American Rights, a national organization that
opposes the drug war, has endorsed the concept of a commission but remains
concerned that major issues such as police corruption would not be addressed.

But the police chiefs association should be commended for taking such a
controversial stand, said association member Joseph McNamara, who was a
police chief in San Jose and Kansas City and a national expert in policing
at the Hoover Institution.

"I think it deserves credit for this kind of call for candid
self-analysis," McNamara said.

To reach Karen Dillon, projects reporter, call (816) 234-4430 or send
e-mail to kdillon@kcstar.com

[inset]

Law Enforcement Woes Are Rampant Nationwide

In just the last two years, cases of racial profiling, police abuse and
corruption have flared up all over the country. In addition to the recent
beating of a suspect by Philadelphia police that was caught on camera, here
are a few other examples:

The Los Angeles Police Department is embroiled in the worst police scandal
the city has seen in 60 years.

After former Detective Rafael Perez was charged in 1998 for stealing eight
pounds of cocaine out of the police property room, he confessed to numerous
illegal deeds. Perez and other officers in the Rampart Division had planted
evidence on innocent people, falsified police reports, altered crime scenes
and lied in court.

Perez and his partner shot an unarmed illegal immigrant and then planted a
gun on him. The man was paralyzed and in a wheelchair when he was convicted
on the false evidence. He has since been released.

Today, more than 100 cases have been overturned, at least five officers
have been criminally charged and more than a dozen face internal charges of
misconduct. About 70 officers are still under investigation. City officials
say the settlements in these cases could cost more than $125 million.

The Memphis, Tenn., Police Department is immersed in federal and state
corruption investigations for illegally spending cash seized in drug
investigations.

A state audit found that more than $100,000 was spent on a variety of
items, including unspecified lawn care services, golf fees for the chief,
furniture for the chief's office and meals for visiting Russian police
officers.

In addition, more than $90,000 the department spent had little or no
documentation, and more than $40,000 that was spent on travel to
conferences was not documented.

The municipal auditor found the department had an "overall blatant lack of
respect for authority."

In July a new police chief fired the department's second-in-command, two
deputy chiefs and the head of finance.

During a 10-month period the Denver Police Department has been rocked by
controversy:

- -- On Sept. 29 police went to the wrong house on a "no knock" drug raid.
They shot and killed Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant who was not involved
in illegal drugs. Earlier this year, just as the controversy surrounding
Mena's death became public, Chief Tom Sanchez flew to Hawaii with staff
members on police business. The Denver mayor called him back and fired him.

- -- Earlier this year the public learned that a number of officers had
confessed to using drugs before being hired.

- -- Two officers last month were charged with destroying evidence in 80 drug
cases.

- -- Also in July police discovered $100,000 missing from the property room
and are investigating.

The St. Louis Police Department is being confronted by angry residents and
civil rights activists after an officer and a federal agent shot two men to
death at a Jack In The Box restaurant in June during a drug investigation.

The two men were unarmed, information the department refused to release for
two days, and one man was not a suspect. Police say the men tried to run
over the officer and the agent. The shooting occurred in the afternoon as
people sat in the eatery. A grand jury is investigating.

In July the Hartford, Conn., Police Department came under fire when it was
learned that it had kept at least $750,000 in drug seizure money that
should have gone to two other state agencies.

In fact, the department had failed to respond to 80 percent or 3,550 court
orders this year that sent the money to the other state agencies.

The state auditor's office, which is examining the department's finances,
said this month that the department had improperly spent $62,000 in drug
money to buy cars for the mayor and other top city officials.

During a 13-month-period, four black men have died at the hands of New York
City police.

Last year police fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, an unarmed man standing
in a doorway. He was struck 19 times and died. The officers were later
acquitted.

The most recent case involved a security guard who also was unarmed. In
March an undercover detective posing as a drug dealer approached the guard
and tried to buy crack cocaine. The two scuffled, and the guard was killed.

Last month a grand jury cleared the officer, saying the shooting was not
intentional.

Racial profiling has touched almost every state in the country in some way
during the last two years. The controversy exploded last year in February
when the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police said that cocaine
and marijuana traffickers were most likely minorities and that those who
didn't believe minorities were behind drugs were naive.

He was quickly fired by the governor. But accusations of racial profiling
continue to persist as Congress and state legislators around the country
are attempting to implement laws to halt the practice.

Since the New Jersey incident, the U.S. Department of Justice has begun
investigating numerous accusations of racial profiling around the country.