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Police chiefs snub ACLU's plan on profiling
Friday, June 09, 2000 By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Privately, some chiefs of Allegheny County police departments have offered support for a plan to keep new traffic-stop statistics to determine whether officers engage in racial profiling, the practice of stopping motorists for no reason other than their race.
But that support was not publicly evident at a meeting yesterday of the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association.
"Privately, I got a lot of positive comments, but publicly I didn't get any support," said Witold J. Walczak, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Greater Pittsburgh chapter.
Walczak addressed 100 association members and guests, explaining the project that was conceived by the Campaign Against Racial Profiling, a consortium of 18 civil rights, community, religious and law enforcement organizations.
Last month, the consortium mailed letters to 126 law enforcement agencies in the county, calling on them to join with federal agencies, which are required to gather traffic-stop data, and "hundreds" of local law enforcement agencies nationwide that have voluntarily begun to do so. The consortium asked the departments to respond by June 30 so that by July 4, the group can publicly thank those who signed on.
"If statistical evidence reveals no problems, you will be armed with evidence to dispel the perception that racial profiling occurs. If the data discloses problems, you will be in a position to address those problems," said the letter from the group, which includes the ACLU, Amnesty International, the National Council for Urban Peace & Justice and the Allegheny and Beaver county chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, among others.
The coalition is asking the departments to record the race/ethnicity of each motorist pulled over; the reason for the stop; whether a search was conducted; whether drugs or other evidence of illegal activity was found; and whether a citation was issued or an arrest made.
Seven departments have agreed to the consortium's request: Braddock, East McKeesport, Edgewood, Elizabeth Borough, Findlay, O'Hara and Duquesne University security.
Whitehall police Chief J. William Schmitt, chairman of the association's education committee, said Walczak was invited to the meeting so the association could seek the ACLU's help in having state citation and warning forms amended to include a space for the motorist's race.
He said a box for that information was removed in the 1990s.
"That way it's uniform statewide and everyone's playing in the same ballpark," Schmitt said.
He said it would be better if every department in the state were required to record the race/ethnicity of the motorist pulled over rather than have it voluntarily done. And the association also wants the ACLU to support its push to amend the state wiretap law to allow audio recordings of traffic stops. That would further provide protection against improper stops, he said.
Walczak said he delivered the message to the group that "nobody's accusing anybody of profiling, but regardless of reality, there is a perception in communities of color that profiling is occurring. That perception, in and of itself, is a problem that every police department has to deal with.
"Gathering statistics is an easy thing to do. It's being done by police departments all across the country and is a sign that minority community concerns are taken seriously and is a sign of a good faith.
"There's no legal requirement to do this. It simply is the right thing to do at this time."
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