RACIAL PROFILING CHARGES FIRED IN KING COUNTY CASE

At issue are training records that could show whether deputies were
targeting certain people

SEATTLE -- What started out as a seemingly routine drug case has generated
accusations that King County sheriff's supervisors may encourage racial
profiling in traffic stops.

The sheriff's office is resisting a judge's order to produce more records
that could show whether deputies in training have been rewarded for
targeting certain types of people or vehicles.

The issue stems from the cocaine possession case of Clarence Davis, 32,
following a traffic stop by Deputy Jeff Hancock on May 13.

Records already obtained by his lawyer, L. Song Richardson, include the
comment, "This was a good profile stop" in an unnamed supervisor's
evaluation of Hancock in 1998.

After Hancock stopped a vehicle that lacked rear mud flaps, the supervisor
wrote: "Good job. This was an example of going after someone who looked
suspicious and finding a legal reason to stop him!"

Hancock also was praised for stopping "two dirtbags types in an El Camino"
for littering. At least one was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Another evaluation mentioned a "beater El Camino-type vehicle" with
equipment violations that "turned out not to be a dirtbag, but not a bad car
to stop."

Last year the state Supreme Court ruled that using a minor infraction as an
excuse to stop, search or arrest a driver for a more serious crime is
unconstitutional.