RACIAL PROFILING BRIDGES GENDER GAP IN COLUMBUS, RETIRED OFFICERS SAY

Watchdog Group Says Young Black Women Are Often Subject To Arrests

COLUMBUS: (AP) The Columbus Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency are guilty of racial profiling because they improperly target young
black women for arrest more than anyone else at the city's airport, former
Columbus police officers say.

James Moss, a former police sergeant who is now president of the watchdog
group Police Officers for Equal Rights, said black women often are stopped
because they fit the description of a "drug courier," a profile officers use
to catch traffickers at airports.

He said a young black woman was recently detained and searched because she
wore dreadlocks and carried her own luggage through the Port Columbus
International Airport terminal.

"Racial profiling is alive and well in Columbus," he said.

Two recently retired Columbus police narcotics officers make similar claims.

Officers Stanley Lisska and Stephen Stonich had worked with the DEA Task
Force at Port Columbus for about four years.

Police supervisors deny their claims of racial profiling and say the men are
upset because they were asked to leave the task force for personal reasons.

But Sgt. Benjamin Casuccio, the officers' former supervisor, said airport
police routinely stop suspects using information from informants.

"We absolutely do profiling," he said. "Do we target a specific ethnic or
cultural group? Absolutely not."

Observations such as flight times or nervous twitches are used to identify
drug couriers, Casuccio said. A suspect's color is only one of numerous
characteristics used to compile a profile, he said.

Racial profiling occurs when police target people for arrest based solely on
their race. Courts have held that racial profiling is illegal under the
search-and-seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment.

Last year, 70 percent (56 of 79) of people arrested at Port Columbus were
black. The latest census figures estimate that 24.7 percent of the city's
population is black.

The officers' allegations come as the U.S. Department of Justice is
considering adding new charges of racial profiling in its civil-rights
lawsuit against Columbus police.

The Justice Department is considering allegations that police use racial
profiling in issuing traffic tickets.

The lawsuit already alleges that officers routinely violated people's civil
rights through illegal searches, false arrests and excessive force.

The police union and the city say abusive officers are the rare exception.

Lisska and Stonich, who declined to comment to the newspaper, were singled
out for transfer from the task force after warning their supervisors of
racial-profiling practices they didn't like, said Russ Carnahan, an attorney
representing the officers through Capital City Lodge No. 9 of the Fraternal
Order of Police.

Lisska, 54, a 32-year police veteran, and Stonich, 52, a 27-year veteran,
were ordered to leave the narcotics unit during an internal inquiry, but
instead chose to retire June 10.

Deputy Chief John Rockwell, who is overseeing an internal-affairs
investigation of the officers' accusations, said Stonich and Lisska were
productive officers until their attitude changed when they joined the task
force.