Driving while black
Charges that police target blacks and Hispanics
for traffic stops have been grabbing the attention
of lawmakers in statehouses throughout the country
by Heather Nickel
Illustration by Daisy Juarez
Byron Harrison is 22 years old. A native of Houston, he now lives in Illinois, where he works for the state Department of Children and Family Services while attending college in Springfield. Harrison dresses professionally and drives a brand new Dodge Neon. With his interest in public affairs, he's just the kind of person politicians say they consider the best hope for America's future.
But public policies don't always match political rhetoric.
Instead, as a young black male, Harrison has reason to believe law enforcement officials consider him a threat to public safety, even when he's simply driving down the highway. In short, Harrison believes that he, along with other young black and Hispanic males, is a likely target for "racial profiling," the suspected police practice of stopping and searching drivers for little or no
reason other than race or ethnicity.
Allegations about the practice, known in some circles as the offense of "driving while black," have been getting increased attention throughout the nation.
Lawmakers in Illinois and about 25 other states have been debating proposals on racial profiling. Last year, Connecticut and North Carolina approved laws requiring police to record information about the race of drivers who are stopped. This year, Missouri and Washington followed suit. At press time, the National Conference of State Legislatures was continuing to track the issue in other states where legislative sessions were still underway. Also at press time, the U.S. House of Representatives was considering a bill that would require a nationwide study of racial profiling by the U.S. Justice Department.
California's ongoing debate on the issue has gotten plenty of press. Last
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year, that state's governor vetoed a proposal approved by lawmakers to study racial profiling. This year, a compromise proposal is in the works that would require police officers to state reasons for traffic stops and issue business cards to motorists they pull over but don't ticket. According to supporters, that plan would give motorists a chance to complain if they believe they were harassed. The procedure is already in operation in Los Angeles, where the Justice Department found a "pattern ofpractice in the racial arena."
But that approach doesn't have universal acceptance. Representatives of the southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union argue the procedure won't deter police from practicing racial profiling. The ACLU would prefer that officials collect racial data during traffic stops.
This spring, Illinois lawmakers held in a Senate committee proposals that would have required police to collect such data. Nevertheless, sponsors vow the issue isn't going away.
Indeed, allegations of racial profiling are working their way through this state's court system. The Illinois State Police and three local police departments have been accused of the practice.
In 1994, the Illinois ACLU filed a class action suit charging that officers in the state's drug interdiction program target Hispanic drivers. Peso Chavez, a member of the Santa Fe, N.M., city council, was stopped for speeding on an Illinois highway. He alleges that a white driver in the car behind him was going the same speed but was not stopped. Last year, the U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled in the agency's favor in Chavez v. Illinois State Police. That ruling is on appeal in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Former State Police Director Jeremy Margolis is representing the agency.
Meanwhile, last April the Village of Mount Prospect settled in a suit filed by three of its police officers charging the police department with targeting Latinos for traffic stops. The village denies the charges, but agreed to pay the three officers $900,000. As a condition of that settlement, the officers are no longer on the force. In addition, the department will be required to record the race of every driver its officers stop. And it eliminated the use of monthly arrest quotas. Nevertheless, the U.S. attorney's office is investigating allegations of racial profiling by that department.
The tony North Shore suburb of Highland Park also faced an investigation into whether its police force practices racial profiling. Five current and former police officers charged that department's leadership with encouraging officers to pull over African Americans and Latinos. Officials deny the charges. Former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, hired by the city to review the department's practices, reported finding only isolated incidents of racial profiling. While he did not find that police authorities promote racial profiling, he urged them to be more aggressive in opposing it.
And in Hillside, west of Chicago, two police officers charged in April they were encouraged to target minority drivers to meet ticket quotas. Critics also contend the force is unrepresentative of the community, which, they argue, is a contributing factor in racial profiling.
In 1990, African Americans and Hispanics constituted about 6 percent of the population of Hillside, though village clerk Patrick O'Sullivan says those numbers have likely gone up. The police department has 38 full-time employees, two of whom are Hispanic. It also employs three African-American dispatchers and one part-time African-American officer. The village has appointed a special counsel to investigate allegations of racial profiling.
While minorities say they have had anecdotal evidence of racial profiling for years, the issue garnered nationwide attention in the mid-1990s, when New Jersey state troopers were accused of targeting African-American motorists along the New Jersey Turnpike. A report released in 1999 by the New Jersey attorney general concluded racial profiling was occurring. That conclusion resulted in a federal order requiring state police officers to record racial information during traffic stops and turn it over to two independent monitors and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Trenton.
The federal requirement added legitimacy to the argument that racial profiling was a pervasive
problem in the state.
It also spurred proposals in other state legislatures to study the practice. Last spring, Illinois Rep. Monique Davis and state Sen. Barack Obama, both Chicago Democrats, introduced separate proposals to research racial profiling statewide over a four-year period. Both plans ultimately failed.
Davis' proposal sought to require state police officers to write down two new pieces of information every time they pull over a motorist. Under her plan, officers would have to record the race of the driver and whether or not a search was conducted. The measure met with opposition from Republican representatives who worried that it isn't always possible to accurately identify a person's race. Yet the intent of Davis' legislation was to measure the race the officer perceives the person to be because, she argues, officers pull motorists over based on perceptions.
Law enforcement groups also opposed Davis' proposal. Lt. Paul Dollins, a spokesman for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, says his organization doesn't oppose a study of racial profiling. But, he argues, it's unfair to ask officers to possibly misidentify a person's race. His organization backs a plan to print race information on driver's licenses.
Dollins says there will be other practical concerns if police officers
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are asked to record racial information. They could, he says, establish "mental quota systems," fearing that if they stop too many minorities, they will get into trouble. "I've stopped five black drivers today, so now I have to stop 20 white drivers," he says.
He adds that officers who patrol areas that are predominantly minority also would be put in an awkward position because most of their stops would necessarily be minority drivers. "How do you explain those numbers?" Dollins asks.
Davis' proposal passed the Illinois House with bipartisan support on a 78-39 vote. However, it never made it to the floor of the Senate. Davis thinks that's because Senate President James "Pate" Philip "doesn't see racial profiling as a problem."
In general, she says, "there is little understanding in the white community of the magnitude of the problem."
Davis says racial profiling occurs when someone who hasn't done anything wrong is stopped. But Dollins counters that police officers stop drivers all the time without issuing a citation or a warning. "There are a lot of white people who say they were stopped for no reason."
Davis is determined to keep the issue on the radar screen. She plans to reintroduce the legislation during the fall session, though she is not optimistic Philip will change his mind.
Sen. Obama's proposal would have gone a step further by requiring the Department of State Police to provide racial and ethnic sensitivity training to state police officers. That plan never made it to the Senate floor, either.
Yet Davis and Obama point to the cases in Highland Park, Mount Prospect and Hillside as proof that racial profiling is happening. "Police officers are coming forward and admitting they've been told to do this," Davis says.
The debate over racial profiling in Illinois and across the United States, while significant, may simply be symptomatic of a larger question: whether the American criminal justice system is biased against people of color.
The statistics do seem compelling. In Illinois, African Americans and Hispanics together make up only about a quarter of the state's population. Yet 65 percent of all prison inmates are black. Another 10 percent are Hispanic. And of the more than 30,000 people on parole statewide, only 7,324 are white.
The national figures are no less compelling. A report issued last month by the Justice Department indicates that, nationwide, minority youths are detained more frequently, and receive longer sentences for committing the same crimes as young whites.
But racial bias is not a sufficient explanation. Dollins acknowledges that people with lower socio-economic status may be most vulnerable to prosecution on all levels. In terms of traffic violations, indigents are more likely to have a taillight out, for example, than are the wealthy. The poor are thus more likely to be pulled over by law enforcement officers. And because minorities are more likely to be poor than whites, they are more frequent targets.
Obama argues the issue of racial profiling represents a societal value judgment. African Americans are associated with higher rates of crime. But, he asks, is that a valid reason to violate the civil rights of certain members of society? Obama says no. Police officers, he argues, must be able to articulate a reason for stopping an individual.
The debate over racial profiling is likely to receive additional attention in this election year. Early in the primary race, Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley both promised to bring an end to the practice. Yet lawmakers, law enforcement officers, civil rights activists and citizens can't even agree on whether racial profiling exists to any great extent. So the push is on to study the issue in this state and elsewhere.
Until then, Harrison will keep glancing in his rearview mirror for the red and blue flashing lights.
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