Pubdate: Sun, 30 May 1999
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 1999 by The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?actionintro
Author: Gregory Kane

WHETHER BLACK MOTORISTS ARE TARGETS IS NO SIMPLE ISSUE

COL. DAVID MITCHELL, superintendent of the Maryland State Police,
walked right into the racial profiling imbroglio in 1995 when he took
over the job.

The issue is now known nationally as the "driving while black"
syndrome. Activists have protested the perceived disproportionate
number of blacks stopped by police. There is legislation pending in
Congress that would require police agencies to document the race of
those stopped to discern whether there is a pattern of racial profiling.

In Maryland, state police have come under criticism for
disproportionately stopping black motorists and searching their
vehicles. Troopers in the John F. Kennedy barracks -- who patrol the
46-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Harford and Cecil counties -- came
in for the harshest criticism. In 1995, 73.7 percent of the searches
in that stretch of road were of black motorists. White motorists
accounted for 21.6 percent of the searches, and Asians 4.7 percent.
Troopers found illegal drugs or drug money in 40.5 percent of the searches.

Mitchell, sitting in a chair in the Pikesville barracks conference
room, said police chiefs across the country look at such statistics and ask:
Do such figures represent good police work or discrimination?

"There isn't a simple answer in the law enforcement community on this
issue," Mitchell said. Even the statistics, he said, can be
misleading. For a while, the media have claimed that the 1995 figure
of 73.7 percent refers to the number of blacks stopped on I-95.
Mitchell stressed that the figure refers to the number of vehicles
with black drivers that were searched.

Another favorite media line, according to Mitchell, is reporting that
black drivers are only 17 percent of the drivers on I-95. The more
accurate term is that black drivers were, in 1995, 17 percent of those
stopped for what Capt. Greg Shipley, public information officer for
the state police, said could be a long list of violations.

And the figures are dropping. Blacks drove 64.2 percent of the
vehicles searched in 1996, 57.6 percent of those searched in 1997 and
43.8 percent of those searched in 1998. The percentage of whites who
drove searched vehicles climbed steadily in those years: 21.6
percent in 1995, 24.4 percent in 1996, 37.7 percent in 1997 and 49.3
percent in 1998.

The statistics are even more revealing -- or more confusing, depending
on how you feel about this subject -- when the total number of stops
is taken into account. State police started keeping those figures in
June 1996. In 1997, blacks drove 28 percent of the 18,264 vehicles
stopped by JFK barracks troopers. Whites drove 66 percent, and Asians
about 6 percent. The percentages were roughly the same for 1998, when
27,362 stops were made.

Of the blacks who were stopped in 1998, 2 percent had their vehicles
searched. The 1998 figures were 1 percent for whites and 2 percent for
Asians. The 1997 figures were 1 percent for blacks, 0.3 percent for
whites and 0.4 percent for Asians.

"If we're out there trolling [for black motorists], the numbers are
going to be a lot bigger than that," Mitchell said.

In this mix of stats are figures showing that searches by JFK barracks
troopers declined sharply in 1996 and 1997. Mitchell attributed that
to the troopers' low morale as a result of the 1995 settlement of an
American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that required state police to
keep statistics on traffic stops.

But there was a second reason for the decline. Mitchell believes those
ever-ingenious drug dealers are avoiding I-95.

"Drug dealers aren't foolish," Mitchell said. "They bypass 95. They're
using Routes 13 and 213."

But the number of searches by JFK barracks troopers has started to
rise again, despite a new ACLU lawsuit filed last summer. Mitchell
believes his agency's stats back up his claim that he tolerates no
racial profiling among his troopers. Frankly, when 98 percent of the
people stopped are allowed to go on their way without a search, it's
hard to argue with him.

But he concedes that minorities perceive police differently from
whites. He questions whether police are doing enough to change that
perception.

"To what extent do we in law enforcement have the duty to say, `Sir,
I've stopped you for such and such'?" he asked. He remembers the times
he stopped people who matched the description of a suspect and found
out they were innocent. He also remembers he apologized to those
people and explained to them what was going on.

Mitchell has tried to diversify his force to change minority
perceptions

of state troopers. About 20 percent of troopers statewide are black,
as are 37 percent of the troopers at JFK. But there's a touch of irony
even in that percentage.

Five of the troopers being sued in the new ACLU lawsuit are
black.
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