Jan. 18, 2001--
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ Racial profiling does exist in Utah, Rep. Duane Bourdeaux contends.
Now the Salt Lake City Democrat wants to find out how deep it goes.
Bourdeaux is sponsoring legislation that would require police departments to compile statistics on the race of those stopped by police.
"This has been a dark cloud for some time in the eyes of many," said Bourdeaux. "It must stop."
Bourdeaux's bill was approved by the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Thursday with one dissenting vote and will go to the House for consideration.
Last year, the House passed the bill, but it was not acted on by the Senate.
Sgt. Ron Stallworth, a 15-year veteran with the Department of Public Safety and a gang investigator, said he has seen profiling occur.
"Let me be very clear: Profiling based on racial and ethnic (factors) has occurred in the state of Utah," he said. "We must acknowledge that, A: It has occurred; B: How do we move forward to address it."
Stallworth said better police training could reduce the problem.
If Bordeaux's proposal passes, drivers would be asked to check a racial category when they get their license. The Drivers' License Division's central database would then track the race of motorists who are stopped.
The Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice would analyze the statistics to determine if police officers or sheriffs deputies are stopping extraordinary numbers of minorities.
Bourdeaux's bill would also require police departments to adopt a policy prohibiting profiling.
Last June, the Salt Lake City Police Department reported that its analysis of traffic stops found the profiling does not occur in that department.
Rep. Lorraine Pace, R-Logan, questioned why lawmakers should change the law when there is no data to show there is a problem.
"I need to see some hard facts and everyone has admitted there are no hard facts," she said.
Bourdeaux said the whole aim of the bill is to gather facts and to go forward from there.
Last summer, the Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness wanted to examine if racial minorities were treated differently throughout the legal system, but was frustrated because in many cases statistics were not kept and were often inconsistent.
Pace eventually voted to approve the bill but said she would watch it closely.
Rep. Brent Parker, R-Wellsville, voted against the bill. He expressed concerns about the accuracy of the figures being compromised by people defining their own race.
"Do we have a color chart?" he asked at one point.
According to a 1999 poll by the Gallup Organization, 75 percent of black Americans believe profiling exists. Eleven states have enacted laws addressing racial profiling in the last two years.
Connecticut, North Carolina, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington all have laws requiring monitoring of traffic stop statistics, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Bourdeaux blamed profiling on the drug war, which he called a "fundamentally misguided crusade."
"The war on drugs has, in fact, been a war on people and their constitutional rights with African Americans and Latinos bearing (most) of the damage," he said.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
