Citing Reports of Suppressed Racial Disparity Findings, LCCR Urges Federal Profiling Ban
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - August 31, 2005
National civil rights organizations, expressing serious concerns to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the reported efforts of high-ranking political appointees attempting to suppress key findings of a government racial profiling study, are urging support for federal legislation to end profiling.
According to reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post, Lawrence A. Greenfield, head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), refused an order to delete references to racial disparities in a news release announcing the findings of a BJS study, "Contacts between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey." The report was eventually released in April without a news release and Greenfield has allegedly been demoted.
"Integrity in law enforcement research should be a bedrock principle of the Department's work in this area," said LCCR executive director Wade Henderson in the letter. "Attempts to undermine that integrity should not be tolerated."
LCCR called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a full investigation into the suppression allegations, echoing reports that Rep. John Conyers Jr., D. Mich., was preparing a request for a Government Accountability Office review.
The study found that in 2002, Blacks and Hispanics were more likely to experience police threat, to be arrested, and to be the recipients of excessive force. Police were more likely to physically search Blacks (10.2 percent) and Hispanics (11.4 percent) or their cars than whites (3.5 percent). In addition, searches of Black drivers were more likely to have been carried out without consent (58.6 percent) than searches of white drivers.
However, the study reveals that searches of black drivers or their vehicles were less likely to find criminal evidence (3.3 percent) than searches of white drivers (14.5 percent). According to the LCCR letter, this disparity "is a strong indication of the presence of racial bias in the activities of these officers."
"This is just another example of the administration saying one thing on racial profiling and doing another," said Wade Henderson, LCCR's executive director. "The president has promised to address racial profiling but now we find that his own administration worked to stifle findings of rampant profiling. We need leadership now, from the president and our attorney general, to fulfill the president's promise to end the discredited practice of racial and ethnic profiling."
The NAACP, who joined in LCCR's letter, released a statement on August 24 confirming the BJS study's findings were consistent with their findings and urging Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act of 2005, which would prohibit racial profiling; provide funding for the retraining of police officers and hold law enforcement agencies that continue to use racial profiling accountable. "This legislation is needed to stop this insidious practice and to help begin to restore the confidence of communities of color in law enforcement," said NAACP President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon.
In addition to the NAACP, the letter was signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, National Council of La Raza, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Organization of Chinese Americans, National Urban League, and Amnesty International USA.
