RESOLVING THE RACE PROFILING ISSUE

What is the job of a state trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike? Is it to
respond to road emergencies and to see to it that drivers obey traffic and
speed laws? Or isit something else?Is it, as part of a nationally declared
"war on drugs," to pull overany vehicle that looks as though it might be
carrying narcotics?

If the latter, how does the trooper distinguish between possible couriers
and probable innocents?

These are some of the questions that come to the fore in the wake of an
offlcial report confirming "racial profiling' by the state police. The
report says troopers have often been singling out black and Hispanic drivers
disproportionately for roadside stops.

Christie Whitman had repeatedly denied this was happening, as had her
attorney general, Peter Verniero,who oversees the force. The governor could
have offered a more nuanced response to complaints of profiling. She could
have sald that her administratlon ab horred bias and did not condone
discrimiatory application of the laws, leaving open the question whether
some troopers were doing just that.

She didn't say that.

Maybe she perceived a political trap. Anything less than a full throated
denial would be challenged. Sho may have reasoned that racial profiling
wouId be tough to prove. Looklng proof, denial would be plausible.

We are, after all, in the last years of the 20th century. The Civil War is
ancient history. Rosa Parks' bus trip seems to have occurred almost as long
ago. So, too, with the court rulings ending school segregation. Affirmative
action has become part and parcel of American business.

Who would have thought that at this late date the New Jersey State Police, a
professional outfit with a proud history, would be doing something as wrong
and dumb as picking on black drivers?

But that's just what a good number of troopers were doing, and she had
reason to suspect that. A Superior Court judge found three years ago that
troopers on southern stretches of the turnpike were stopping black motorists
at a rate five times that for whites. The judge did not pull that number out
of thin air. There was evidence to prove it.

Why were they doing it? Was it because they were racists? Some of them,
perhaps, but not all, and here is where the going gets sticky. The fact is
that the federal agencies most nowledgeable about illegal narcotics say they
are distributed chiefly by black street gangs and other ethnic criminal
groups, including Dominicans, Cubans, Haitians, Jamaicans, Mexicans, and
Puerto Ricans.

The wholesale distribution of marijuana is controlled by others, including
the Italian Mafia and motorcycle gangs. At the retail level, marijuana is
sold by domestic gangs and ethnic groups, usually immigrants from source
countries." So says the National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee,
in an offlclal, confidential report distributed to law enforcement sgencies.

This is pretty much what Carl Williams told a newspaper reporter in
February, right down to the reference motorcycle gangs. At the time,
Williams, a bluff, up from the ranks cop, was superintendent of the state
police. On the day the newspaper published the interview, the governor fired
him.

She did so, she said, because his comments about minorities were
insensitive. She said she did not know whether they were accurate. That was
beside the point. The main thing was that they were impolitic. She is
looking for a new superintendent. We can expect that whatever else the new
guy brings to the job, he will be discreet.

Now a comprehensive state investigation of the racial profiling controversy
has resulted in a report saying that, yes, turnpike troopers do pay
attention to race in deciding,which errant drivers to stop. White drivers
often get a pass. Black drivers are puiled over.

The governor indicated that she was shocked. Shockedl "The integrity of
nearly 2,700 dedicated New Jersey State Troopers has been called into
serious questlon by allegations of racial profiling," she declared. 'I am
especially outraged when the actions of a few tarnish the reputation of the
many."

To return to the basic que6tion: What iB the most important task of a
turnpike trooper? Monitoring traffic and responding to road emergencies, or
busting narcotics runners? The report of the state investigators is helpful
here.

It says that when troopers find drugs, it is usually in small quantities.
Further, drugs are found in only 19 percent of the cars that are searched.
For the investment in manpower, the returns are meager.

The time has come to reconsider New Jersey's role in the war on drugs.
Troopers should redirect their attention to traditional patrol
responsibilities. Cars should be searched only when there is evidence of a
serious 1aw violation. Supervisors should make sure that officers do not
single out blacks and Hispanics for road stops.

With some common sense and renewed attention to equitable treatment of all
citizens, the damage done by this controversy can be put behind us.