Pubdate: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com Author: Ben Stocking POLICE BALK AT TRACKING RACIAL DATA Profiling: Davis' Plea Falls On Deaf Ears For Most Valley Law Enforcers. Despite last week's plea from Gov. Gray Davis, most Silicon Valley police departments have no intention of tracking the race of drivers pulled over for traffic stops. While the biggest departments have volunteered to collect the information, they had already agreed to do so before the governor urged them to, according to an informal Mercury News survey of law-enforcement agencies. Those departments that don't plan to collect the data -- most of them in smaller communities -- are simply relieved that the governor vetoed a bill last week that would have required every department in California to do so. ``It would be just another statistic we'd have to keep,'' said Hollister Police Chief Bill Pierpoint. Fifteen of 27 departments contacted said they don't plan to collect the data, eight said they will, and four haven't decided. Among those that have volunteered to track the stops are the departments in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland -- the three largest cities in the Bay Area. The California Highway Patrol, which patrols all the freeways in the region, also has agreed to keep the statistics. That agency, too, agreed to track the statistics before Davis announced -- on the day he vetoed the bill -- that he would direct it to do so. Civil-rights advocates have called on police to collect the data in an effort to measure the scope of ``racial profiling'' -- a practice whereby police allegedly pull over minority drivers for minor traffic infractions in the hope of finding something more serious, such as drugs. Minorities insist they are routinely pulled over for ``DWB,'' driving while black or brown -- stopped without cause simply because of the color of their skin. But police insist they don't make race-based stops. In his veto message, Davis said racial profiling was not widespread enough to warrant mandatory data-collection. Whether they have agreed or refused to collect the data, police chiefs across the region contended that racial profiling isn't common, and most insisted that it doesn't occur in their departments. Some chiefs said it makes no sense to gather information about a problem that, in their opinion, doesn't exist. ``Police departments really abhor the idea of profiling,'' said Police Chief Steve Schwab of Morgan Hill. ``It's not something we do.'' But others said collecting the data would be a useful way to show that profiling doesn't happen. Mike Maehler, chief of the Mountain View police, is concerned that so many people believe the police are making stops for racist reasons. He hopes that collecting data will build confidence between police and minority communities. ``If data collection can help us understand the issue and help build that trust, then it's a good tool,'' he said. San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley agrees that police must work to improve their credibility in the eyes of many minorities. But he doesn't believe that gathering the data is an effective way to weed out bad cops. ``If we have officers out there who are targeting minorities -- and I'm sure we do -- I don't think that making them record the race of their stops is going to stop it,'' he said. ``Officers can make a few more stops of white drivers to even their percentages or not record some stops.'' Horsley said the more important mission is to find ways to address the causes of racism in law enforcement. Campbell Police Chief David Gullo agreed that there are more effective ways to ensure that officers make stops based only on reasonable suspicion, not race. His department has installed video cameras in patrol cars, so that all traffic stops are recorded. He also relies on department supervisors to monitor the conduct of their officers. ``I expect them to know what their officers are doing and ensure that they're treating people fairly,'' Gullo said. In San Jose, where police began collecting the data in June, department brass said the program hasn't resulted in any great expense or caused any procedural problems. Still, officers in some smaller departments cited concerns about costs and procedural burdens in explaining why they would not collect the data. Area civil-rights advocates applauded the departments that have volunteered to collect the data. But incomplete data, they said, will be insufficient. Even though the biggest departments will collect the data, ensuring that most stops in the region are counted, it is important for all departments to track the stops, they said. ``You can't just do random areas and then think everything's OK,'' said Tony Alexander, president of the Silicon Valley African-American Democratic Coalition. ``Racism doesn't happen in random areas. It happens statewide.'' In some smaller communities with mostly white populations, the percentage of minority drivers pulled over might be particularly high, said Michelle Alexander, an attorney in the San Francisco office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In such towns, Alexander said, police sometimes conduct what she calls ``border-patrol stops,'' pulling over minorities on the misguided assumption that they don't belong in the community. ``It's extremely important to have a statewide data collection to identify those law-enforcement agencies that may be pulling over people of color at a disproportionate rate,'' Alexander said. While the data itself is not a panacea, Alexander said, it would help end what she called the ``cycle of accusations and denials'' between minorities and police. Only when the scope of the problem is documented, she said, can police and community members focus on how to solve it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contact Ben Stocking at or (408) 278-3439. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto