And so the cycle continues. Because the races of those stopped were not recorded by the Illinois State Police, this analysis was performed by calculating the incidence of Hispanic surnames among those who were stopped. It reads SUSPECT. This becomes obvious when the officer asks the driver whether he or she is carrying drugs or guns and seeks consent to search the car. Paul Worthy, a 59-year-old retiree, said he was stopped – and released without a ticket – by white officers in Detroit while driving a Cadillac. Both anecdotal and quantitative data show that nationwide, the police exercise this discretionary power primarily against African Americans and Latinos. FOURTH: The Justice Department Must Take Steps to Ensure that Racial Profiling is Not Used in Federally Funded Drug Interdiction Programs, The U.S. Department of Justice has a moral and legal responsibility to ensure. B.L.’s lawsuit challenges the Cheerleading Rules on their face and as applied to B.L. Carl Williams, New Jersey's Chief of Troopers, was dismissed in March 1999 by Governor Christine Todd Whitman soon after a news article appeared in which he defended profiling because, he said, "mostly minorities" trafficked in marijuana and cocaine. He stopped the car and got out to see what was causing the problem. (Source: The Portland Press Herald), In Maryland, in 1997, Charles and Etta Carter, an elderly African American couple from Pennsylvania, were stopped by Maryland State Police on their 40th wedding anniversary. Our state affiliates and other civil rights advocates have brought lawsuits based on showings of discrimination by law enforcement agencies, but legal action is only a beginning; these cases are always difficult, long-term efforts that take considerable resources and plaintiffs of unusual fortitude. Each pretextual traffic stop involves an untruth, and both the officer and the driver recognize this. The report was based on data derived from all incident reports of car stops initiated by the Philadelphia police in four specific police districts during the week of October 6, 1997, and by the officers of the Narcotics Unit during the month of August, 1997. Let them do whatever they want to do. When a black officer recognized Wheat, tensions eased and the officers let him go. 118, the Traffic Stops Statistics Act, requiring the collection of several. Along with the complaint, the ACLU-PA also filed a motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction asking the court to order the District to immediately and temporarily restore B.L. "Not that the government has broad authority to punish you for anything you say, no matter where you are." Moments later, a man with a baton was smashing 26-year-old La-Prell's car window and dousing her with pepper spray. (Source: The Daily Record), In 1998, Nelson Walker, a young Liberian man attending college in North Carolina, was driving along I-95 in Maryland when he was pulled over by state police who said he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Williams said that the previous summer he had been followed from the Darbo neighborhood by a convoy of police cars that grew to 11 by the time he was pulled over. Drug use and drug selling are not confined to racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S.; indeed five times as many whites use drugs. After the appeals court ruling, the school district appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and the court granted the district's motion to hear the case. "I feared for my life. Under threat of ACLU litigation, the city entered into negotiations which, for the first time in the country, required a detailed racial analysis of police data. Nationwide, arrests for drug possession reported by state and local police nearly doubled from 400,000 in 1981 to 762,718 in 1988. I know it's humiliating, but let them do whatever they want to do to make sure you get out of that situation alive. They looked like they'd have pulled their guns if I'd so much as sneezed." For instance, a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma earlier this month on behalf of SFC Gerald and his son may take years to resolve. In March, Chief William Lansdowne of the San Jose Police Department announced that his department would follow suit, and in April, Portland Police Chief Charles Moose spearheaded an anti-profiling resolution signed by 23 Oregon police agencies – including the State Police – that included a commitment to gather traffic stop data. In fact, some of the training materials used and produced in conjunction with Pipeline and other associated programs have implicitly (if not explicitly) encouraged the targeting of minority motorists. (Source: The Raleigh News-Observer), Gary D. Rodwell repeatedly refused to consent to a search of his vehicle when he was stopped for three hours on I-95 in 1998. The incident reports disclosed that where a reason is given for a car stop, in virtually all cases the precipitating event was an alleged traffic violation. WHREN v. U.S.: THE SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS PRETEXTUAL TRAFFIC STOPS. I'm thinking, 'Oh shoot, are they gonna pull me over, are they gonna stop me?' (Source: The Augusta Chronicle), In Tennessee, at a May 1999 meeting with the Nashville Human Relations Commission, Mansfield Douglas, a Metro councilman, reported that two months earlier he had been pulled over by a police officer in the very district he represents. This data cannot be analyzed for African Americans since they do not comprise a cohesive set of surnames. While no one can know the motivations of each individual trooper in conducting a traffic stop, the statistics presented herein, representing a broad and detailed sample of highly appropriate data, show without question a racially discriminatory impact on blacks and other minority motorists from state police behavior along I-95. One of the officers said that Gammage ran three red lights before stopping after the officer flashed his lights at him. Keep your hands on the steering wheel, and do not run, because they will shoot you in your back. In Maine, the Portland Press Herald last year reported that the city's minority residents feel the pressure of police bias. It should surprise no one that those who are the victims of police discrimination regard the testimony and statements of police with suspicion. ", "When I see cops today, I don't feel like I'm protected. Six hundred and sixty-one, or 80.3 percent, were black, Hispanic, or other racial minorities. Sgt. In Rhode Island, the Providence Journal-Bulletin reported last year that as far back as 1990, the Rhode Island ACLU has been investigating complaints from Hispanics that they were being unfairly targeted on I-95. Operation Invincible in Memphis, Operation Clean Sweep in Chicago, Operation Hammer in Los Angeles, and the Red Dog Squad in Atlanta all targeted poor, minority, urban neighborhoods where drug dealing tended to be open and easy to detect. ", In Texas, a 1995 analysis of more than 16 million driving records by the Houston Chronicle found that minority drivers who strayed into the small white enclaves in and around the state's major urban areas were twice as likely as whites to be ticketed for traffic violations. And all equipment must be in working order at all times. But it must be done without damaging other important values: the freedom to go about our business without unwarranted police interference and the right to be treated equally before the law, without regard to race or ethnicity. As events in New Jersey demonstrate, even when faced with a lawsuit, statistical evidence from independent experts, public pressure and intensive news coverage, officials in law enforcement and government are not eager to acknowledge the problem of racial profiling. (Source: Bay State Banner), In Michigan last year invited officials African Americans and other minorities to air their grievances about police mistreatment at an all-day forum. A career soldier and a highly decorated veteran of Desert Storm and Operation United Shield in Somalia, SFC Gerald, a black man of Panamanian descent, found that he could not travel more than 30 minutes through the state without being stopped twice: first by the Roland City Police Department, and then by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. (Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI)). He said that the officer threatened to arrest him and called in a canine unit to search the vehicle. Notwithstanding this and other possible factors, the ACLU assumed that driving patterns were consistent with population (by race). The statistical evidence collected in the course of this litigation shows a clear pattern of racially discriminatory traffic stops and searches. The other officers beat Gammage with a flashlight, a collapsible baton and a blackjack as one put his foot on Gammage's neck. "He told me there were a lot of people in this area driving without valid licenses and he wanted to make sure mine was valid," Douglas said. “There’s lots of things that schools can do to protect students from bullying and harassment that doesn’t involve punishing kids for speech that they engage in off campus,” said Sara Rose, an attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania who is involved in the case. "It was just harassment. (Source: Providence Journal-Bulletin). This demonstrates that searches are based on race, not results. In mid-May, the national ACLU set up a nationwide DWB hotline – 1-877-6-PROFILE. The officer said that Lee was stopped because he was driving a vehicle that fit the description of one stolen earlier that evening. In a front-page article, the newspaper told the story of Michael Stovall, a 35-year-old lawyer who passed a police officer going in the opposite direction on a city street and watched as the patrolman did a U-turn and pulled up behind him. According to a complaint filed with the ACLU, the trooper who stopped Smith appeared to be "shocked and surprised" when Sgt. Although the U.S. Supreme Court failed to declare searches subsequent to a pretextual stop unconstitutional, that does not mean that such a tactic is wise or effective from a law enforcement perspective. "I think they stopped me because I'm black." The perspective of Mr. Darden – who spent 14 years working closely with police to prosecute accused criminals – is not unique. ", LeRon Howland, the Oregon State Police Superintendent, said that the resolution means that "if you have a police officer out there who uses his badge for racially motivated conduct, it will not be tolerated by police agencies or the leadership of the unions." "We all were wearing seat belts and I wasn't speeding, so, really, why were we stopped? Bridgeport, the state's largest city where blacks and Hispanics comprise 85 percent of the population, borders Trumbull – which is 98 percent white. Among those telling their stories was Alicia Smith of Oak Park, a 19-year-old African American who was driving to a movie with friends in her hometown when two white officers stopped her without explanation and asked where she was going. The ACLU will continue to monitor incidents of racial profiling closely and will, where appropriate, bring new cases to court. Between January 1995 and September 1996, the Maryland State Police reported searching 823 motorists on I-95, north of Baltimore. It is time for law enforcement professionals to use their own best professional judgment in scrutinizing the wisdom of the pretextual stop tactic. She said she was told that she failed to signal properly before changing lanes. While troopers ask a higher percentage of Hispanic motorists than white motorists for consent to search their vehicles, they find contraband in a lower percentage of the vehicles of Hispanic motorists. (Source: The Washington Times), In Indiana, Sgt. Perhaps the personal cost exacted by racially-biased traffic stops is clearest in the instructions given by minority parents to their children on how to behave if they are stopped by police, regardless of economic background or geographic region. Based on his analysis of the data, Professor Lamberth concluded: "The evidence examined in this study reveals dramatic and highly statistically significant disparities between the percentage of black Interstate 95 motorists legitimately subject to stop by Maryland State Police and the percentage of black motorists detained and searched by MSP troopers on this roadway. Any reason why you're driving around in circles?" The primary mission of the Task Force was to intensify air and sea operations against drug smuggling in the South Florida area, but it was not long before the Florida Highway Patrol entered the fray. In 1986, a racially biased drug courier profile was introduced to the highway patrol by the DEA. Some completely avoid places like all-white suburbs, where they fear police harassment for looking "out of place." Ultimately, six officers were tried, convicted and incarcerated for their criminal activities. On March 21, 2019, the court granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, finding that the school did not have the authority to discipline her for her off-campus speech and that the school was in violation of the First Amendment. The fact that skin color has now become a proxy for criminality is an inevitable outcome of this process. The police justified this detention because the men allegedly resembled a description of two suspects being sought for 19 armed robberies and because one of the men seemed to be "nervous." This vicious cycle carries with it profound personal and societal costs. ", The newspaper also told the story of Mutima Peter, an immigrant from Congo and pastor of the African International Church, who said he was once questioned by an officer after parking his car. In the past year, front-page stories, editorials and columns have appeared in every major national newspaper and countless local dailies. DRUG TRAFFICKERS ARE NOT "MOSTLY MINORITIES". Racial profiling is based on the premise that most drug offenses are committed by minorities. "Driving while black" assails these basic American ideals. The data, however, reflect stops of minority drivers at a highly significant disparate rate. "I worked at GM as a skilled tradesman for $25 an hour. She consented. In 1997 California Highway Patrol canine units stopped nearly 34,000 vehicles. In North Carolina, a bill requiring data collection on all traffic stops was passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of the state legislature and signed into law by the governor on April 21, 1999. The pervasiveness of racial profiling by the police in the enforcement of our nation's drug laws is the consequence of the escalating the so-called war on drugs. ", Significant blame for this rampant abuse of power also can be laid at the feet of the government's "war on drugs," a fundamentally misguided crusade enthusiastically embraced by lawmakers and administrations of both parties at every level of government. (Source: The Detroit News), In New Jersey in 1998, four young men – three African Americans and one Hispanic – en route to a basketball clinic in North Carolina were shot on the New Jersey Turnpike after their van was stopped for speeding and suspected drug trafficking. The study found that Hispanics were ticketed most often, though blacks overall faced the sharpest disparities, particularly in the suburbs around Houston where they were more than three times as likely as whites to receive citations. posted the Snap on a Saturday, and made it available only to her Snapchat friends. Indeed, during hearings of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders ("The Kerner Commission") in the fall of 1967 where more than 130 witnesses testified about the events leading up to the urban riots that had taken place in 150 cities the previous summer, one of the complaints that came up repeatedly was "the stopping of Negroes on foot or in cars without obvious basis. While the state police oppose the measure, saying it is a waste of their time, the Rhode Island ACLU and the Urban League of Rhode Island are aggressively lobbying for its passage. Troopers assigned to Valkyrie teams stop Hispanic motorists for traffic violations two or three times more frequently than other ISP troopers patrolling the same highways and charged with enforcing the same laws. Observers rode in cars at a constant 55 or 65 miles per hour (depending upon the posted speed limit) northbound from exit 67 of I-95 to the last exit in Maryland, exit 109. NATIONWIDE COVERAGE OF A NATIONWIDE PROBLEM. The case involves a First Amendment challenge to the Mahanoy Area High School’s “Cheerleading Rules,” which prohibit cheerleaders from posting any “negative information” about cheerleading online. Jonny Gammage died, handcuffed, ankles bound, facedown on the pavement shortly after the incident began. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit previously held, in two other ACLU-PA cases, that schools cannot punish students for out-of-school speech that does not pose a risk of substantially, materially disrupting school activities. Smith was in full uniform at the time, but he was not wearing a hat which would have identified him as a police officer. Tail lights must be visible from a particular distance. The ACLU of Pennsylvania believed that the problem in Philadelphia was considerably larger than the actions of six police officers, and that racial bias in law enforcement was rampant. The officer ordered Gammage out of the car and saw him grab something that was reportedly a weapon, but in reality was just a cellular phone. Hispanic and African American inmates are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be incarcerated for a drug offense.". Was he traveling under an alias? Pretextual traffic stops fuel the belief that the police are not only unfair and biased, but untruthful as well. While Hispanics comprise less than eight percent of the Illinois population, and take fewer than three percent of the personal vehicle trips in Illinois, they comprise approximately 30 percent of the motorists stopped by ISP drug interdiction officers for discretionary offenses such as failure to signal a lane change or driving one to four miles over the speed limit. "Not only is it our obligation to enforce the motor vehicle laws, but in doing so, we are provided with a profile of our community and those who travel within its boundaries.". People said I should speak out, but this is a general thing for many people." On our nation's highways today, police ostensibly looking for drug criminals routinely stop drivers based on the color of their skin. Prepared by the Department of Public Education, Loren Siegel, Director; Rozella Floranz Kennedy, Editorial and Marketing Manager; Sara Glover, Graphic Designer. He let air out of the tires and rapped on them. That year the agency launched "Operation Pipeline," a little known highway drug interdiction program which has, to date, trained approximately 27,000 police officers in 48 participating states to use pretext stops in order to find drugs in vehicles. The officer knocked the phone out of Gammage's hand and a scuffle followed. Federal Appeals Court Upholds and Expands Students’ Free Speech in... ACLU Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Students’ First Amendment... UrbEd and Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools v. School... ACLU-PA Lawsuit Accuses Philadelphia School Board of Violating the... Abolitionist Law Center v. Judge Anthony Mariani. But elected and police officials would be wise to act sooner rather than later. Passage of the Act should be viewed as a first step toward addressing a difficult problem. David Smith, an African American police officer, was pulled over while driving an unmarked car in the City of Carmel in 1997. Of these 524 stops, 71.1 percent were of minorities as shown below: All Car Stops with Known Race of Suspect for the Week of October 6, 1997. "The officer pulled us over to see if we had our seat belts on," Hyman said. The experts concluded that state troopers, especially those assigned to a drug interdiction program called "Operation Valkyrie," singled out Hispanic motorists for enforcement of the traffic code1: When it comes to searches of vehicles, the state's data did reflect the races of those searched. The Avalon Foundation acting wing, featuring local high school age actors will put up the witty and zippily executed “Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred) on … Gardner told the newspaper that he left the scene with a $25 seat-belt ticket, an annoying vibration in his Lexus and the belief that he had been treated unfairly. In 1995, Gardner was stopped while driving a 1990 Lexus on I-85. While African Americans comprise less than 15 percent of the Illinois population and take approximately 10 percent of the personal vehicle trips in Illinois, they comprise 23 percent of the searches conducted by Valkyrie officers. The Philadelphia suburbs are predominantly white and many suburban drivers come into the city on a daily basis. But as one officer learned, such "honesty" can be a dangerous counterpoint to official denials of profiling. No drugs were found and no ticket was issued. (Source: Phoenix New Times), In California in 1997, San Diego Chargers football player Shawn Lee was pulled over, and he and his girlfriend were handcuffed and detained by police for half an hour on the side of Interstate 15. For example, traffic codes define precisely how long a driver must signal before turning, and the particular conditions under which a driver must use lights. Fighting crime is surely a high priority. These efforts should be replicated in all 50 of the largest cities in the U.S. Pretext stops capture some who are guilty but at an unacceptably high societal cost. In 1993, the ACLU brought a class-action lawsuit against the Maryland State Police (MSP) on behalf of Robert L. Wilkins, an African American attorney who was stopped, detained and searched by the MSP for no apparent reason. Can it be a coincidence that only a few hours before Whitman and Verniero issued their April 20 report – and one week before the state's appeal was to be argued in court – word came suddenly that the state had dropped its appeal? As such, it demands a nationwide solution. (Source: The Baltimore Sun), In Massachusetts, speaker after speaker, including black doctors and lawyers, testified before a legislative committee in April 1999 about being stopped by police officers, apparently because of the color of their skin. As the officer gave the license back, he asked Penn if he knew which town he was in. Yet despite overwhelming evidence – including the police department's own statistics on traffic stops – officials in law enforcement continue to deny the reality of racial profiling on our nation's highways. Although the homes were closed, Estes told the Human Relations Board that he spoke to a resident of the subdivision for about 30 minutes while sitting in his Chevrolet Blazer.
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