Pubdate: Tue, 03 Feb 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Richard Winton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

SHERIFF SETTLES CLAIM OVER RACIAL PROFILING IN CAMPUS RAID

Department agrees to revise training and notify  community college 
trustees after incident at L.A.  Trade-Tech.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, settling a  claim over 
detentions of minority students during a  narcotics search at Los 
Angeles Trade-Technical  College, has agreed to revise its anti-bias 
training  and ensure that its supervisors prevent racial  profiling.

The Sheriff's Department, which patrols Los Angeles  Community 
College District campuses, reached the  settlement with the American 
Civil Liberties Union of  Southern California to resolve a claim 
alleging the  department stopped and searched dozens of 
African  American students based on their race. The 
incident  occurred Oct. 17 on the campus south of downtown Los  Angeles.

Attorneys for the ACLU said that under the settlement,  the Sheriff's 
Department will implement changes,  including examining current 
anti-racial bias procedures  and revising its policy to state that 
department  officials within their power "guarantee racial  profiling 
and bias-policing are not practiced."

"Our Constitution and laws protect the community  against law 
enforcement harassment based on skin color,  and this settlement is 
one step toward ensuring that  the Sheriff's Department never allows 
that to happen  again," said Catherine Lhamon, racial justice 
director at the local ACLU chapter.

The suit stems from an incident in which 14 deputies  went to the 
campus allegedly looking for drug dealers  and detained 33 black 
students. A Latino student who  attempted to take pictures of the 
raid was also  detained. Two people were arrested.

An investigation by the college district, which  oversees the trade 
school, concluded that the student  roundup constituted racial 
profiling: using racial or  ethnic characteristics to determine 
whether a person is  likely to have committed a crime.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, however, said the  department's 
internal investigation and the county  Office of Independent Review 
found that the department  did not commit racial profiling, but that 
the operation  could have been better planned and conceived.

Whitmore said the department had been asked to respond  to drug 
dealing on the campus.

Whitmore said that in addition to anti-bias training,  the department 
will now make sure college officials are  part of any policing event 
on a campus.

In the wake of the incident, Sheriff Lee Baca said that  deputies who 
conducted the undercover sting operation,  without the knowledge of 
campus officials, said they  believed they were observing a narcotics 
sale in  progress.

Hoping to keep the suspect in sight, deputies detained  all the 
students surrounding the activity, Baca said.

The Sheriff's Department is now required to notify the  college 
district's eight trustees before launching an  investigation of 
alleged illegal activity on campuses,  he said. Any such operation 
would require approval from  the district's chancellor.

Michael Gennaco, head of the review office, said his  investigation 
found that the raid was not a case of  racial profiling but inept planning.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom