TO PROTECT AND COLLECT

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.