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Legislation and Litigation

Legislation

NEW YORK

The New York Legislature currently has three bills pending related to the practice of racial profiling and data collection of traffic stops. Provisions of these bills mandate data collection of traffic stops when a citation is given, locally and by the state, with the intention of determining whether racial profiling exists, outline protocol in the investigation of complaints regarding police practice and the compilation of statistics, and mandate data collection of both traffic stops and pedestrian stops for all local and state jurisdictions for citations and warnings.

A.03811., An Act to Amend the Executive Law in Relation to Traffic Stops Conducted by Law Enforcement Officers

Status: Pending January 04, 2006

NY A. 2392., An Act to Amend the Executive Law, in Relation to Traffic Stops Conducted by Law Enforcement Officers.

Status: Unenacted
all jurisdictions required to collect data

Scope of Collection: vehicle stops

Data Collected: age, race, gender, ethnicity, number of passengers, reason for stop / alleged violation, warning given, citation given, personal search conducted, search of vehicle conducted, other information necessary

Other Information: Amends executive law by adding a section with four provisions: (1) defining racial profiling; (2) prohibiting racial profiling; (3) establishing a law enforcement data collection policy regarding racial profiling; and (4) establishing a reporting system to the legislature. Division of Criminal Justice Services will collect data annually and publish a report. Analysis will compare to minorities in general population.

NY A. 7633. , An act to amend the executive law, in relation to providing for the compilation of criminal law enforcement statistics by the division of criminal justice services and the investigation of complaints related thereto by the department of law.

Status: Unenacted
all jurisdictions required to collect data

Scope of Collection: other

Restrictions: Collection and correlation of data for all criminal activity, with a focus on traffic stops

Data Collected: age, race, gender, ethnicity, reason for stop / alleged violation, warning given, citation given, arrest made, personal search conducted, search of vehicle conducted, contraband found, items seized for forfeiture, stop resulted from investigation, force used by officer, injuries, authority for search

Other Information: Directs the Division of Criminal Justice Services to collect and correlate information pertaining to criminal law information, especially traffic stops; requires police agencies to furnish these data to the division; provides for determination and investigation of statistically significant aberration indicative of differential law enforcement; provides for investigations thereof by the attorney general; permits the DCJS to make grants to police agencies, which are required to submit data to DCJS for these purposes.

NY A. 8897-A. , An act to amend the executive law, in relation to ethnic or racial profiling.

Status: Unenacted
all jurisdictions required to collect data

Scope of Collection: all stops

Data Collected: age, race, gender, ethnicity, number of passengers, reason for stop / alleged violation, time, location, warning given, citation given, arrest made, personal search conducted, search of vehicle conducted, type of search, contraband found, items seized for forfeiture, stop resulted from investigation, force used by officer, injuries, authority for search

Other Information: Defines racial profiling and bans the practice throughout the state. Requires every law enforcement agency to develop a policy prohibiting racial profiling and promulgating procedures to review complaints. Mandates data collection for vehicle and pedestrian stops. Requires the Division of Criminal Justice to develop a data collection form, an annual report form, a complaint form, and to implement a plan for a computerized data collection system.

ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT'S STOP, QUESTION, AND FRISK PRACTICES

RAND Corporation

In 2006, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stopped a half-million pedestrians for suspected criminal involvement. Raw statistics for these encounters suggest large racial disparities — 89 percent of the stops involved nonwhites. Do these statistics point to racial bias in police officers’ decisions to stop particular pedestrians? Do they indicate that officers are particularly intrusive when stopping nonwhites? The NYPD asked the RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) to help it understand this issue and identify recommendations for addressing potential problems. CQP researchers analyzed data on all street encounters between NYPD officers and pedestrians in 2006. They compared the racial distribution of stops to external benchmarks, attempts to construct what the racial distribution of the stopped pedestrians would have been if officers’ stop decisions had been racially unbiased. Then they compared each officer’s stopping patterns with an internal benchmark constructed from stops in similar circumstances made by other officers. Finally, they examined stop outcomes, assessing whether stopped white and nonwhite suspects have different rates of frisk, search, use of force, and arrest. They found small racial differences in these rates and make communication, recordkeeping, and training recommendations to the NYPD for improving police-pedestrian interactions.

FLORIDA: JACKSONVILLE POLICE RECEIVE NO RACIAL PROFILING COMPLAINTS IN ’08

The Jacksonville Police Department presented its annual Racial Profiling Report which covers Calendar Year 2008 and showed that JPD received no formal reports of racial profiling. It also confirmed that local police are conducting traffic stops using legal criteria and not race as their motivation for enforcement action. Currently, the Texas Racial Profiling Law requires that police departments collect data pertaining to traffic stops, pedestrian stops, searches conducted and citations issued.

TEXAS: BELLAIRE MAYOR TO INVESTIGATE RACIAL PROFILING ALLEGATIONS

The mayor of Bellaire responded publicly for the first time to allegations of racial profiling due to an incident of mistaken identity. Officers will now be required to participate in additional cultural sensitivity training. The city is also hiring an independent state consultant to analyze traffic stop data for 2008 and look for incidents of racial profiling. The mayor also promised to release the results of the district attorney's investigation publicly, once it is completed.

CALIFORNIA: TORRANCE POLICE PROFILING SUIT IS DEFEATED

A woman who claimed she was wrongly arrested by Torrance police because of her race has lost her federal lawsuit against the city, a former chief and two officers. Sara Plowden, who lived in Gardena when she filed the civil rights lawsuit in January 2006, claimed she was subjected to a "driving while black" arrest early on Nov. 23, 2003. She claimed the officers physically accosted her and that city officials and former Police Chief James Herren allowed "an atmosphere of lawlessness, abuse and misconduct" to fester in the department.

ARKANSAS: ARIZONA DPS TIGHTENS SEARCH RULES TO AVOID PROFILING

The Arizona Department of Public Safety, in moves intended to prevent and detect racial profiling, is making internal changes that include requiring Highway Patrol officers to document why they search vehicles they stop. Other changes announced by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office include requiring officers to obtain a motorist's consent for a search to get the driver's signature or to use video or audio to record the driver giving permission verbally.

UTAH: UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING

Sherida Felders, a black grandmother, alleges a Utah Highway Patrol officer had no reason to believe her Jeep Commander contained illegal substances, but called in a drug-sniffing dog after stopping her for speeding Felders has filed a suit accusing the trooper of conducting an illegal search of her vehicle for drugs based on racial profiling.