| 'We do care; we have commissioned
a study'
A recent study of racial profiling in New Jersey illustrates the problem of research not backed up by substantive reform. Eighty percent of drivers stopped by state police over most of the last decade were black or Hispanic, according to state documents made public late last year. Faced with the threat of legal action from the U.S. Department of Justice, the state government agreed in 1999 to implement comprehensive reforms to end racial profiling by its troopers. It is good that New Jersey is finally taking meaningful action. Officials there would probably argue that spending years studying the problem provided them with the statistical grounding to lobby successfully for reform. Nevertheless, it's clear in hindsight that something should have been done about racial profiling in New Jersey years earlier. In fact, according to The New York Times, some of the documents recently released show that the New Jersey state police and members of the attorney general's office had statistical evidence of racial profiling as far back as 1996 and 1997, but continued to deny in public that it was going on. Collecting statistics can be an effective public-relations strategy. A department that is in the process of "studying" racial profiling has a convenient answer for those who question its practices. Officials can procrastinate. They can say that they are waiting for numbers to come in before taking any action. Or the study itself can be presented as the department's effort to snuff out racial profiling. Instead of adopting policies to stamp out discriminatory tactics, police officials use their study as a stock reply to any reporter or concerned citizen who comes along: "We do care; we have commissioned a study." Yet, none of those studies ever find that specific officers engage in racial profiling. None of them ever result in reprimands for those troopers who use discriminatory tactics. None of them actually do anything about the culture of police departments. Police departments need not waste their time collecting the data; they need to do something about changing attitudes among their officers, and reforming the ways they enforce the law. Specifically, departments should mandate racial-sensitivity training for all officers, hire more minority officers, and back away from their practice of associating gang membership with criminal activity, which often leads to the stereotyping of minorities. Citizens and government officials can also help by passing laws that outlaw racial profiling and making sure police departments act on them. Statistics, by themselves, don't make police departments accountable. They don't deter cops from practicing racial profiling. If they did, then North Carolina would be the model state for racially sensitivity on the highway. In the beginning of 1999, the state government began publishing an online database listing the race and sex of every driver pulled over by state law enforcement officials. It appeared to be an amazing gesture toward open government and police accountability. But few people paid attention. In November of last year, North Carolina's two largest newspapers ran stories examining 1998 traffic stop data--information not contained in the online database, which does not go back that far. The analysis showed that black men were more likely to get traffic citations than white men in North Carolina. No one seemed too surprised. And nothing was done.
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'We do care; we have commissioned a study' |