POLICE LOOK FOR LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES FOR TOUGH RACIAL PROFILING LAWS

LIVINGSTON - Racial profiling legislation topped the list of concerns that
members of the local law enforcement community recently relayed to State
Representative Dan Ellis.

Numerous issues and concerns were voiced by about a dozen local law
enforcement officials to Ellis and his legislative staff during a recent
lunch meeting.

Legislation addressing racial profiling that was passed during the last
legislative session has resulted in concern among law enforcement circles
statewide.

The legislation uses Department of Public Safety (DPS) statistics as the
benchmark and then ties those statistics to census data, something most law
enforcement officials are opposed to, as it's the equivalent of comparing
apples to oranges.

For example, let's say a county's DPS logs reflect that 24 percent of its
stops are black people and a review of that county's census data shows that
black people make up 13 percent of the county's population. The DPS in that
county then finds itself in big trouble, because according to those
standards, the DPS is targeting black people.

Although that's just a hypothetical example and it could just as easily be
Hispanics or Asians, it illustrates the problem of tying DPS statistics to
census data.

The DPS works state highways that are predominantly transit traffic and if
a DPS officer in Polk County makes a stop on U.S. 59 North and the driver
happens to be Hispanic, it shouldn't be compared to census data reflecting
Polk County's Hispanic population, especially if the Hispanic stopped on
the highway isn't even a Polk County resident, according to many of the
officers.

If major modifications are not made to the legislation in the upcoming
legislative session, it may mark the end of law enforcement as we know it,
they say.

"If you've spent your life in law enforcement, made a career of it and have
a family to support, and you know your career may hinge on the next traffic
stop you make, you may not make that stop," one local officer said.

In the end, it affects everyone, because fewer stops by officers could
ultimately translate into more criminals going loose.

As the legislation currently stands, March 2003 is the deadline for every
law enforcement agency in the state to submit a report on traffic stops for
the previous year, compiling statistics based on sex and race.

Cameras play an important role in the documentation of these traffic stops.
In conjunction with the legislation, the state set aside money to purchase
cameras for law enforcement agencies throughout the state. The cameras will
be placed in patrol vehicles to record all traffic stops.

If your department doesn't have cameras, you're required to keep logs of
every single stop made. If you have cameras, you don't have to keep the logs.

Although it would appear that having the cameras is an advantage, the
cameras actually pose just one more headache for law enforcement agencies.

Although the cameras are generally obtained by the individual departments
through grants that fund the purchase, the departments are then obligated
to fund the repair and maintenance of the cameras.

The cameras are expensive to begin with, but then the departments have to
foot the bills for repair, which is also expensive, thus posing quite a
challenge for small rural departments with limited budgets.

Additionally, representatives of several law enforcement agencies have
reported concerns about the quality of the cameras and indicated that they
don't hold up well to normal wear and tear, resulting in more maintenance
costs. In an additional irony, the legislation went into effect Sept. 1,
2001, 10 days prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, resulting in an
unexpected twist for law enforcement officials. A concern for law
enforcement is: How do you conduct follow-up investigations into criminal
activity in which overwhelming evidence points to the perpetrators being of
Middle-Eastern descent when you have the racial profiling police breathing
down your neck?

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the legislature does to
address these concerns.

Other subjects addressed included pay increases, college degrees, the death
penalty and identity theft. "I think y'all do a tremendous job," Ellis told
the representatives of the Polk County Sheriff's Department, the Livingston
Police Department, the Onalaska Police Department, the Corrigan Police
Department, the Texas Rangers and the Polk County Peace Officers Association.