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By Brandt Williams
January 9, 2001
Part of MPR's online coverage of Session 2001
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RealAudio |
A state legislator plans to introduce a bill that will help determine if racial profiling occurs in Minnesota. Rep. Rich Stanek, DFL-Maple Grove, says the measure will provide financial help for police departments that wish to document the race of the people its officers pull over in traffic stops. However, critics of the proposal say without mandating racial data collection, the bill has no teeth.
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"Real or perceived, the issue is out there in public," Stanek says. "We as cops owe it to the citizens of Minnestoa to dispel this myth or deal with it head on. I'm choosing to deal with it head on, collect the data, provide a forum to collect that data and then get it back out to the community so they can use it."
Under Stanek's proposal, participating police departments will require officers to record several details about the traffic stop, including the location, date and time, officer's perception of the driver's age, gender and race, ethnicity or national origin and the reason for the stop. They will also receive state grant money to help them compile the information. The data will be collected for 18 months. The results will be compiled and analyzed and a report will be made to the Legislature.
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Under Stanek's proposal, participating police departments will require officers to record several details about the traffic stop, including the location, date and time, officer's perception of the driver's age, gender and race, ethnicity or national origin and the reason for the stop.
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Stanek's bill is based on the recommendations made by a racial profiling task force created by the Department of Public Safety. The group, which met throughout the summer was made up of law enforcement officials, concerned community members and other reresentatives of the criminal justice system.
Critics of Stanek's proposal note it doesn't include one task force recommendation: Mandatory collection of data. Rep. Gregory Gray, DFL-Minneapolis, says if the collection of racial data isn't compulsory, then the process won't be effective.
"If you do have a department that has a culture of racial profiling or a culture that is not sensitive to issues of color or issues of gender, to put it in their hands to decide whether or not they're going to collect this data seems a bit ludicrous to me," Gray says.
Gray says he will propose a bill of his own which will make the collection of the data mandatory by all police departments. He says that's the only way to determine if there is a pattern of racial profiling occuring in Minnesota.
Stanek says mandatory data collection isn't necessary because a sufficient sample can be gathered by the state's largest law enforcement agencies.
"Cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul - they represent one-third of the police officers in Minnesota. They're collecting the data. Nothing I give them as a state legislator or public policy is going to force them to do that or change the way they're doing that," says Stanek.
Stanek says he also expects the Minnesota State Patrol to begin voluntary collection of racial data as well. He says together with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments, that would account for nearly half of the state's traffic stops.
Regardless of whether Stanek's bill becomes law, efforts are being made by other law enforcement organizations to discourage racial profiling. The Peace Officers Standards and Training board has announced that it is developing its own training standards designed to prevent officer discrimination.
Brandt Williams covers Minneapolis and Saint Paul for Minnesota Public Radio. Reach him via e-mail at bwilliams@mpr.org.
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