IT'S NOT JUST IN NEW JERSEY

Cops Across The U.S. Often Search People Just Because Of Their Race, A
Study Says

WHEN BLACKS AND HISPANICS ACROSS the U.S. read recent headlines about the
practice of "racial profiling" by state troopers in New Jersey, it didn't
strike them as an obscure practice in a far-off state. It sounded like
their own experience. They have long believed it's no coincidence that so
many of them have been stopped and frisked by police for no apparent
reason. African Americans even coined a term for their - posed offense:
DWB, for Driving While Black.

Last week their suspicions gained supporting evidence. A 43-page report
released by the American Civil Liberties Union showed the problem to be of
national scope. Citing police statistics, case studies from 23 states and
media reports, the organization asserts that law-enforcement agencies have
systematically targeted minority travelers for search - pedestrians,
motorists and airline passengers -based on the belief that they are more
likely than whites to commit crimes. Says David Harris, the University of
Toledo law professor who wrote the A.C.L.U. study: "It affects blacks and
Hispanics from every station in life and every geographic location."

The practice is often a contributing factor in tensions between minorities
and police. Last week the justice Department released a 12-city survey in
which 24% of the blacks who were polled said they were unhappy with their
local police. It was a smaller number than might be expected at a time of
prominent police-brutality cases, including the trial of three New York
City officers accused of assaulting Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. But it
was a far higher number than the 10% of whites unhappy with police.

Most law-enforcement officials have denied that their officers engage in
racial profiling. And the practice has been difficult to prove because few
police agencies record the race of the drivers they pull over. An important
exception came in a study last month by the attorney general of New Jersey,
who found that police brass unofficially encouraged state troopers to stop
blacks and Hispanics in disproportionate numbers as part of a campaign to
increase drug arrests. Two troopers were later suspended and indicted on
charges of falsifying records to conceal racial profiling. (They pleaded
not guilty.) A judge dismissed charges against 21 people whom the troopers
had arrested.

Across the U.S. nonwhite travelers tell similar tales of police harassment.
According to the A.C.L.u. report, the stretch of Interstate 95 from Florida
to New York is especially notorious. On 1-95 in Maryland, blacks made up
17% of motorists but 73% of those stopped and searched. Last year a
class-action suit accused Maryland state troopers of targeting black
drivers. In Illinois, where Hispanics are just 8% of the population, they
represented 30% of the drivers stopped by police. "It's really deeply
ingrained behavior that is going to be hard to change," says Reggie
Shuford, an A.C.L.U. staff attorney.

The civil-liberties group wants federal legislation requiring all
law-enforcement agencies to track racial data from traffic stops. Only a
few police departments, including those in San Jose, Calif, and San Diego,
now do so. The organization is also pushing for an end to so-called
"pretext stops" as a crime-fighting tool and a ban on racial profiling in
all federally funded druginterdiction programs.

Ronald Neubauer, president of the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, blasted the A.C.L.U. report for "using an extremely broad brush to
portray all of law enforcement as individuals who practice racial
profiling." He added that "we recognize a problem exists, but it is an
extremely small number of officers conducting themselves illegally."

Still, when the A.C.L.U. placed ads in the black media asking victims of
racial profiling to share their stories, the organization was flooded with
thousands of complaintsand not just about traffic stops. The next
battleground may be airports. Several recent lawsuits allege that U.S.
Customs Service inspectors regularly strip-search minorities solely because
of their race. Customs officials deny that they countenance racial
profiling, but they have formed a commission to investigate the allegations.

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of law-enforcement officers to stop
and search people whom they suspect of even minor infractions. But the
courts do not consider race alone to be grounds for suspicion. "You don't
have to resort to these techniques to reduce crime," says Hugh Price,
president of the National Urban League, "Public safety and civil liberties
are not either or propositions."