HPD'S RACIAL PROFILING POLICY MAY MEAN FEWER TRAFFIC TICKETS

Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said he would not be surprised if
police were writing fewer traffic tickets because of concerns some
officers might have about the department's new racial profiling policy.

The policy that was instituted last month requires officers to collect
data on every person with whom they initiate contact. The data will be
used to determine if officers are detaining or questioning people
because of their race.

Bradford said statistics on the number of tickets written in the past
few weeks are not available and will not be ready for at least 10 to
15 days.

The chief said he understands why some officers have reservations
about the new practice and said it would be normal to see a decrease
in the number of traffic tickets.

"That is a typical response when you implement change," Bradford said
Wednesday during his monthly briefing with the local news media.

He stressed, however, the information is being collected to ensure
citizens are stopped for legitimate reasons.

"We are not going to tolerate any civil rights violations," Bradford
said.

Racial profiling is the practice of suspecting a person of possible
criminal behavior primarily because of the person's race.

The issue has been in the public spotlight recently and was
highlighted when New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman fired the
state police chief after he said blacks commit more crimes. State
police already were under attack for allegedly using a racial profile
to stop motorists on the New Jersey Turnpike, a major drug-trafficking
corridor.

Houston's new policy has raised concern among officers. Hans
Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said
officers have told him they are writing fewer tickets because they are
afraid the information collected for racial profiling could be used to
single out officers for punishment.

"Tickets have probably been reduced anywhere from 50 to 70 percent,"
Marticiuc said.

He said the police union does not oppose collecting the data but said
they are worried about how the information will be analyzed, stored
and used.

"We don't know what threshold will be used to determine if a
particular individual is actually using race as a criteria. It really
has the officers concerned," Marticiuc said.

Bradford said he has not received complaints Houston police are using
racial profiles but added he wants to collect the numbers so the
department can deal with the issue if complaints are made.

"This data can be used to support or refute any allegations of racial
profiling," Bradford said.

The chief said when HPD officials analyze the data, one factor that
will be important in assessing the information will be the
demographics of the officer's patrol area.

For example, Bradford said an officer assigned to patrol the city's
Third Ward would have more contact with African- Americans because
there are more African-Americans living in that area than other ethnic
groups.

"Nobody in this town is going to grab that set of data and say you are
racially profiling because you are stopping predominantly
African-Americans. Nobody is going to do that," Bradford said.

On the other hand, Bradford said there would be cause for concern if
an officer had stopped 10 Hispanics and written all of them tickets
while pulling over five whites without issuing a citation.

Officials with the city's municipal court system, where traffic
tickets are processed, were unable to provide statistics showing
whether the number of citations was up or down.