Thursday, February 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Editor's Note: Serve and protect

Ask the average white person if he's a racist and he'll say no way. He'll probably even offer some evidence to show he doesn't discriminate.

Ask the average white person if he's opposed to racial profiling and he's more likely to be equivocal. Depends on the situation, he might say, perhaps citing the efforts since 9/11 to track down Arab terrorists as an example of justifiable racial profiling.

White police officers are likely to be even more comfortable with the practice. They've been trained to identify criminals, they'll say, and race sometimes comes into play as they decide whether a suspicious-looking person should be stopped and questioned. They might argue that race isn't what it's really about, but rather what falls under the cop jargon of "JDLR"--just doesn't look right. If minorities disproportionately fall into the JDLR category, that's just the way it is, they'll say.

Of course, that's not the way African-Americans see things, and understandably so. Racial profiling is anathema to black people on its face, of course, but also because the practice creates fear that law-abiding black citizens minding their own business can be stopped, harassed and unjustly accused of crimes. Nobody wants to live with that constant fear in the back of their mind. Racial profiling, they'll say, is simply an extension of hundreds of years of discrimination in this country.

Civil libertarians certainly sympathize with that viewpoint, but they are particularly concerned that racial profiling runs counter to the Constitution. Racial discrimination in all its forms has been outlawed for a very long time, and activists are intent on snuffing out all vestiges of the practice.

The 2001 Nevada Legislature commissioned a study of police stops across the state to determine whether racial profiling is occurring. The results, released last week, show a pattern in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas of African-Americans being stopped in numbers significantly higher than their representation in the population. Whites were stopped less than their population and Hispanics were about equal with or slightly above their population.

The numbers are telling, especially when you look beyond the baseline record of who was stopped. The study also shows that blacks are more likely to be held by police for long periods, more likely to be handcuffed and more likely to be arrested. Even more revealing is the category of car searches. Blacks are more likely to have their vehicles searched but are much less likely than whites to actually have contraband.

Gary Peck, Nevada director of the American Civil Liberties Union, says for two days after the study results were released, he fielded calls from angry community members. "There is no more important issue in the black and Latino communities," he says. "This is a big deal. People are angry, frustrated, distraught. They are expecting law enforcement to get a free pass here."

Peck is not among those handing out passes. He says the study "strongly suggests there may well be a systemic problem" within law enforcement. Peck says the study "certainly doesn't inspire confidence" and "argues very strongly for the Legislature to revisit this issue." Peck will urge the Legislature to commission further studies that take into account more extensive vehicle stop information.

State Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas, wants to go a step further. He has introduced a bill to make racial profiling a misdemeanor. He says past efforts to encourage local police departments to institute internal policies have proved unsuccessful. "What we tried to do was get [former Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller] to institute some rules and regulations governing profiling but he was in denial," Neal says.

Neal says the problem may be in the way police officers are trained. "We train a police officer in a military manner, which allows them to seek out groups rather than individuals," he says. "When that happens, people's constitutional rights are going to be violated. Police don't have same rights as the military. ... What we have to get over to these police officers is they are not supposed to operate against blacks and Hispanics like an occupying force."

But hold on a second. What we as a community want most is to feel safe. There are some desperate, violent, sick-in-the-head people out there, and we want the police to aggressively pursue them and catch them. That's what we pay them for. We want them to use their training and experience to get the bad guys, thereby making the community safer for everybody.

Many officers believe efforts to crack down on racial profiling and other policing methods hinder their ability to do their jobs. They worry about their own safety when they are restricted in their handling of criminal situations. They see a lot of ugly stuff on the streets--a whole lot more than the rest of us do--and they don't like the idea of academics and statisticians telling them how it is.

And so, to many people, the issue of racial profiling is not cut and dried. It's one of those uncomfortable gray areas we encounter so often these days in which idealism and reality must find some common ground.

Let's be clear: Racism is wrong, contemptible and illegal. Officers who act on purely racist impulses should be drummed out of the profession. Police department commanders who issue racist directives should be fired and probably prosecuted.

The state's racial profiling study suggests a pattern of local officers stopping African-American motorists based solely on the color of their skin. The numbers are alarming, but the study does not provide enough information to confirm a charge of systemic racism. A more detailed study is needed and should be approved by the Legislature.

Furthermore, the study does not justify sweeping changes in police work. Rather than implementing kneejerk reforms that only serve to deter officers from doing their jobs, we should aggressively weed out the bad apples who make things harder for the large majority of officers whose sole priority is to serve and protect.

--GEOFF SCHUMACHER