RACIAL PROFILING

Poll shows division, but if it exists what should be done?

EDITORIALS Surprise! On the issue of whether black motorists are more likely
than white motorists to be pulled over by police, our Carolinas Poll shows
63 percent of whites say no and 69 percent of blacks say yes.

It depends, it seems, on where you're sitting. Or maybe in whose car.

Racial profiling or "driving while black" is not simply a matter of
perception, though.

It's an issue that spurred the N.C. legislature to begin in January
requiring state law enforcement officers to record the age, race and gender
of persons they stop and to provide a reason for the stop.

It's an issue that led New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican,
to fire her state police superintendent after he told reporters that
minority groups were more likely to be involved in drug trafficking.

It's an issue that has the chiefs of the nation's largest police departments
trying to hash out a national traffic-stop policy to ensure that minorities
are not unfairly targeted.

It's an issue that pushed President Clinton to instruct federal law
enforcement agencies to collect race, gender and ethnicity of people they
stop or arrest in hopes of ending "racial profiling."

Some police acknowledge profiling and say it is crucial in the fight against
drug trafficking. Law enforcers in the Carolinas think concerns are based
more on perception than fact.

Still, an Observer study of tickets issued to drivers by both the S.C.
Highway Patrol and the N.C. Highway Patrol showed a disproportionate number
of tickets to black drivers given the percentage of blacks who hold driver's
licenses in each state.

To answer the charge of unfair targeting, the N.C. Highway Patrol is
conducting its own study to determine if black motorists are singled out.

Good. Information is key in answering some of the disturbing questions
around this issue. The other data collection programs at the federal and
state level also offer hope in providing needed insight.

Still, the chasm that exists in our poll may remain after the facts are in.
As one respondent said, it may be hard to stop whites from feeling one way
and blacks another.

Many minorities have compelling stories to tell about being stopped by
police for no reason -- undergirding evidence for the existence of
profiling. Even Charlotte-Mecklenburg Urban League President Madine Fails
has one The respondents to our poll told some. And a truck driver from Rock
Hill, among the 26 percent of whites who felt police stopped blacks
unfairly, said he had observed the stops first hand.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney said police need to simply
acknowledge that race is an issue in policing. "There are an awful lot of
people in denial, but so be it," he said.

So the truly important question may not be the one posed in our survey.
Maybe the question should be: If such profiling exists, what if anything
should be done about it? President Clinton says it "is wrong, destructive,
and must stop. [It] is in fact the opposite of good police work, where
actions are based on hard facts, not stereotypes."

We agree.