| The Oregonain
(Portland, Oregon)
October 20, 2006
ADVOCACY GROUPS, POLICE UNION
SHARPLY DIVIDED ON RACIAL PROFILING
City Council - Portland's police chief largely supports
activists' recommendations but opposes tracking police stops
By Elizabeth Suh
Advocacy groups asked the Portland City Council on Thursday
to create a committee that would track police traffic stops
in an effort to eliminate racial profiling. The council signaled
it was prepared to do so soon, but the Portland Police Association
objected.
The recommendations presented at the meeting resulted from
five community meetings in May and June spearheaded by organizations
including Oregon Action, the Northwest Constitutional Rights
Center and the Center for Intercultural Organizing.
Other key recommendations included:
The Portland Police Bureau should develop a written plan
to eliminate racial profiling.
Community groups should create programs to educate the public
on how to behave when stopped by police.
The groups should help people who think they have been mistreated
to file complaints.
Police Chief Rosie Sizer said she supported the groups' recommendations,
but she opposed any data tracking that might disclose officers'
names.
The blood pressure of some in the otherwise polite meeting
seemed to rise when Robert King, president of the Portland
Police Association, spoke. He said that officers did not do
racial profiling and that he had not joined in the community
meetings because they presumed that racial profiling is fact.
"The point of this is that officers are acting in a
way that is racist or racial," King said. "I don't
know how we hear that or respond to that without being defensive."
As explained by Jo Ann Bowman, a former legislator and associate
director of Oregon Action, the community meetings began with
the statement: "We know that racial profiling occurs,
and we are not here to debate it." She defined racial
profiling as relying too much on race in deciding whom to
stop.
Bowman said the statement was borne out by police data released
this year showing that African American drivers in Portland
are stopped at more than twice the rate as white drivers.
Also, African American drivers are more likely to be searched,
yet less likely to have drugs or contraband on them.
Sgt. Mitch Copp, secretary-treasurer of the police association,
said there are good reasons for the disparities, citing gang
activity among African Americans and Latinos as well as higher
crime rates among black males.
"I think you're trying to address a problem that doesn't
really exist," Copp said of the racial profiling recommendations.
City Commissioner Sam Adams said he believes all people are
guilty of stereotyping others but officers have a unique burden
because they are in a position to use deadly force.
"My plea to you is to accept that we are all capable
of (stereotyping), even despite our best efforts and intentions,"
Adams said.
Mayor Tom Potter, a former police chief, said the data indicate
a problem with police actions. "Until we see changes
in the numbers, we must continue to provide oversight of this
issue," he said.
Whether or not racial profiling is real, said Sizer, it's
a problem if the community perceives it as one.
"We know that prejudice is insidious. It affects even
the good-hearted," she said. "I believe we have
a duty to work towards a system that is considered fair."
Sizer's suggestions included changing protocols for traffic
stops and searches, so officers are clearer about their reasons
for acting, and finding new ways to resolve public complaints
about police treatment.
Potter said the City Council would meet within 60 days to
discuss how to establish a committee.
Elizabeth Suh: 503-221-8215; elizabethsuh@news.oregonian.com
©2006 The Oregonian
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