Racial Profiling Cards

[mdb23]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys are required by your dept. to fill out a "racial profile card" whenever self initiated activity is conducted (traffic violations, ped checks, car checks, etc..)?

We are required to fill one out, sign it, place our serial no. on it, and send it in to the dept number crunchers. Rumor is that a "bad cop" class is being formed for those who "engage" minorities with a frequency not justified by the racial makeup of the community. For example, if the community is 67% minority, then 67% of the people you stop should be members of a minority group.

just wondering.......
mdb23

[Augie]

I have to do something like that to. At the Air Port when checking incoming flights every person who we stop, search, run criminal history check on, passport check, refer to customs, etc. Goes into the compter. The race, sex, flight number, citizenship, reason(s). Even on the random checks the comupter makes. Just to make sure, I'm Not Profiling.

[Linus]

There's probably some obscure logic at work behind the scenes but I gotta ask anyway:

Exactly how does 67% equate a "minority"? In fact, isn't 67% the exact limit for what is commonly referred to as an "absolute majority"?

Just wondering.

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Honestas supra omnis

[ski]

mdb23,

Being a fellow Missouri cop, we gotta do that crap, too. ALL Missouri LE agencies are required to fill dem little cards out now. It sounds like your dept. is going a little farther than most. For now, only traffic stops need be reported per state law, but I hear it is going to be expanded to pedestrian checks, also. Let's hear it for the Missouri State Legislature! Racial Profiling...it's not just for breakfast anymore!

Ski


[This message has been edited by ski (edited 02-14-2001).]

[Erick]

There was a move in CA to require that we cite everyone we stopped or give them our business card - so they could complain about us easier. I've been off the road so I honestly do not know the status of it.

Personally, I worked our gang unit for a couple years before coming to narcotics. In gangs, I can tell you almost exactly what my percentage of contacts/arrest were - they mirrored our gang population.

This is just another lame version of "let's screw the cops".

[DBoy]

In the Portland, OR area we have started doing that this year. It's called "CDC", Contact Data Collection. Basicly anytime we "stop" a person we have to fill out a form that pops up on our MDT/MDC after the stop is over. The local agencies have started doing it voluntarily, so that it won't be mandated as a requirement that we have to do it. Pretty messed up, but from what I hear, if it's mandated, the form will be 2xs as long.

[Tracy]

As a non-cop, let me see if I got this right:

To make sure that Police Officers are not using profiles to do their job, they are required to keep a profile on everybody they make contact with?

No wonder my brother is retiring...

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On second thought, this profiling thing actually can work in favor of cops: make sure there's a location and time for every contact as well. You can actually start an intelligence file on people you stop... For you ex-Army types, I'm describing the old SALUTE report. Field interviews could be more potent that way when doing crime analysis.

Just a thought...

[mdb23]

ski

Yeah, my dept is trying to be ahead of the curve as far as gathering info is concerned. We have to fill out one of those damned little cards any time that contact is initiated by us. Get this, our dept is also going to release to the results on the web (dept wide results, not those of individual officers). I can't wait until the press gets their hands on that one.

Tracy

Sorry, but no suspect info is recorded on the cards other than the race, sex, and age of the suspect. Location is not recorded. Basically, they want our name, rank, serial, time and date of stop, reason for stop (probable cause, reasonable suspicion, etc), race, sex, and age of suspect, whether or not a search was conducted (according to my dept, a pat down constitutes a search for the purposes of these cards--so it looks like I "search" everyone), duration of search, if contraband was found, and if a custodial arrest was made as a result of the stop (there is more, but you get the idea).

It stinks.

mdb23

[Sharky]

We're doing it too in FEDland. Our traffic checkpoints have to keep records of the "assumed" race of the driver of every single vehicle that comes through the checkpoint. In addition, every single vehicle that is sent into the secondary inspection area requires a seperate form to be filled out with regard to the race, sex, ethnicity, citizenship, reason for secondary (better be a damn good one although the law only requires mere suspicion at permanent checkpoints), results of secondary inspection, etc.... We even have big multi-lingual posters up that say that if they feel uncomfortable in any way that they should file a complaint immediately. THEN, if they don't know how to write, guess who gets to help them fill out their complaint form. The humorous part of all this is that the secondary form came about so we could see how many vehicles were secondaried and the races of the occupants in the vehicles as compared to the number of people who came through the checkpoint. The thing is, nobody was keeping track of how many people actually came through the checkpoint. We, the grunts, tried to tell our all-knowing superiors that the forms were worthless unless we knew how many vehicles actually came through as a total. They looked at us like we were idiots. It took the management gods six months to figure out why we were still laughing at them and then, lo and behold, six months after the fact, a new form was mandated to keep track of all vehicles that passed through the checkpoint. What a sad joke.

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F.I.D.O.

[ski]

Me thinks I should invest in a paper form production company...

This lunacy is getting out of control.

No one has ever really explained to me what the defenition of "Racial Profiling" is and how it is measured or studied. If a white cop works in a black area (or vice versa)...how do you measure if he "racially profiles" or not? If some black cop works in Chinatown...WTF? If you work in a slow, predominately white high-middle to upper class city...and BOTH of your arrests this year are minorities out of the same recovered stolen auto that crashed in Mr. and Mrs. Percival Worthington-Schmidlap the Third's (Esquire) olympic-sized pool next to the guest house and helipad after Big City PD "attempted to curb" (never, ever, use the "P" word, that's a whole other can o' worms) them at 127 MPH for 30 minutes, are you gonna end up "flagged" somewhere?

Ski
"Nuke Gay Whales for Jesus!"

[grrlcop74]

Here too..for now just on traffic stops though. I did a brief paper last semester in English class on how "racial profiling" is a b.s. term. Got several black officers and friends who are not law enforcement to contribute, and they agreed with me..but that's another story LOL.

Kristen
"Can I list 'blur' as a color? That's all I saw at 75 frickin mph"

[Marauder]

Is it just white cops/agents that have to fill these out? Or are black and asian cops/agents expected to keep track of these things as well?

[DFC5343]

Marauder...don't come here and be stupid. These guys work the perisable skill of combat shooting atleast once a week. Besides...does canada have minorites besides canadians?

[Marauder]

DFC, go play a couple of rounds of slap and tickle with LRSC Grunt instead of proudly showcasing your ignorance on here. First I presume you meant the "perishable" skill of combat shooting. WTF? You gonna find me and shoot me for asking a friggin question, there HERO? Real subtle implication genius. Second, the majority of people in Canada are in fact... wait for it...wait for it... CANADIANS! If your flippant little question was something more along the lines of "Are there ethnic/religous groups represented in the Canadian population who are not of the predominant caucasian, Christian extraction?", then yes we do indeed have minorities. We have citizens and landed immigrants from every religious and ethnic background you could think of...kinda like...America. Geez, a country having some smaller ethnic groups that do not form a majority of the population, thus making them a "MINORITY" of the population they are encased in...what a concept. Who woulda thunk it?
Now I don't mind putting up with your infantile, xenophobic inanity over on GeneralNet, but on here I asked a legit question as to whether white LEOs had the sole burden of having to track their arrests, which I do not think is right, for two reasons. Firat, I think it would be insulting to assume that only white officers would be expected to do this, as the obvious implication is that they are more prone to be racist than any other race/ethnicity. Second, I would assume (the LEOs can correct me here)that having only white LEOs expected to fill these out would cause some tension along racial/ethnic lines if some white LEOs saw that practice favouring the guys who don't have to do it.
Now if you are done making yourself look like an ass, DFC, how's about you go back to pimping Boeing's latest and greatest deathtrap bucket of bolts over on NavNet and GeneralNet and leave this board untouched of your density, simpleton.
MARAUDER OUT...

[This message has been edited by Marauder (edited 02-15-2001).]

[DFC5343]

Haaahaaa....got you again! To let everyone know this idiot posted some incriminating crap about a fellow bro in arms and now is trying to percieve that I wish to do him harm. A little skizoid wouldn't you say? To let you know I am too a minority in my country and proud of my heritage. I like all things canadian...just not you. The next time you want to try your bullshit think first...then you won't have any enemies.
Loser. Sorry bout that but this guy is a buddy fucker.

P.S. Get a spine while your at it and look where you are. You yourself are a racist. I do not come over to canadanet and talk down to your fellow countrymen. They in fact have a sense of humor. You on the other hand talk as if you want a fight. Your buddies Enfield, Garret, FNG to name a few seem to be pretty good guys and joust back when the jousting starts. You...go off on some woe is me tangent and attack with treats of sending this shit to someone who gives a fuck. As for Boeing shit I answered a question about one of our products for info not sale. I don't work with the sales dept. So get it right and maybe you won't be so postal(this is a slang term doesn't mean shit).



[This message has been edited by DFC5343 (edited 02-15-2001).]

[Tracy]

Sharky:

I can see the profile cards for the BP:

Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, Mexican...

Ooops, you guys are targeting MEXICANS. What next, go to Minnesota and target Norweigians?

[mdb23]

The big problem that I have with the system is the manner in which they are going to determine if a cop is a "profiler." For example, KC has a 32% minority population(overall), but the area which I work is approximately 98% minority. The question that I have is whether, when reviewing the data from my self initiated activity, they are going to compare it to the 32% or 98% population demographic. I asked this very question during our racial profiling training course and received an answer of "We don't know yet."

Scary stuff......
mdb23

[jnc36rcpd]

After years of investigation, the DOJ concluded that the Montgomery County Police do not profile, but they issue a higher percentage of citations to black motorists than the black population of the county. DOJ also ruled that while there was no pattern of excessive force, there was always the possibility that some had occurred.

Of course, the DOJ did not take into account the majority black adjoining jurisdictions of the District of Columbia and Prince George's County. Nor was the actual number of black motorists or black traffic violators taken into consideration. Subsequent to this, the County Police signed a consent agreement to monitor the race of motorists stopped by officers. (The consent decree is published on the MCP website.)

We, of course, followed suit. In theory, individual officers cannot be identified beyond membership in randomly assigned groups within the agency. I don't know if it's actually anonymous in the County Police. In my own agency, command staff could track officers if they wanted to. Of course, we weren't even accused of racial profiling, but we must be PC.

Officers concerned about accusations of racial profiling have several solutions. One is to avoid traffic enforcement entirely. Another is to request assignment to majority white communities. Other solutions include working a lot of laser/radar in white neighborhoods to boost those white citations up or to simply not stop violators when the officer can see it is a minority prior to the stop.

The ones who will suffer the most for this are the citizens, especially those who live in largely minority communities. A society that treats police like the enemy will soon learn that criminals are not their friends.

Be safe.

[This message has been edited by jnc36rcpd (edited 02-15-2001).]

[MrPotatoHead]

While the agency I work for doesn't keep track of everyone we stop, it wouldn't be all that hard to find out if someone were possibly "Profiling." Each report has race and ethnicity. Pull up all of an officers arrests and see what happens. I'll bet that if an officer works in a white neighborhood, he arrests more white offenders. If he works in a hispanic neighborhood, he arrests more white hispanics, etc. I haven't heard of anyone doing this yet but who knows?

Unfortunately or fortunately, we have bypassed the race and ethnicity issue and our IA has a "Use of Force" computer that tracks each and every officers use of force incidents. If you have 2 incidents, you are automatically flagged and kept track of. Kind of sucks for those of us that work anywhere but the ritzy areas.

Big Brother is watching, Mom is watching Big Brother, Dad is watching Mom. Who's watching Dad?

[benelli]

We have the same thing here, but no name or id number on the card. Just what race, the reason for stopping them and whether they were searched or not. They are supposed to be completed on every traffic stop whether we cite or not

[Linus]

Originally posted by MrPotatoHead:
Big Brother is watching, Mom is watching Big Brother, Dad is watching Mom. Who's watching Dad?

Peeping Tom?



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Honestas supra omnis

[RECON5]

MB23 - While my agency is not directly accountable for compiling such information we have all been briefed on the new statistics being kept. The word we were given is that, within Texas, the data will compared to the demographics where the officer is assigned. For example if one of our State Trooper's are assigned to an area that is comprised of 98% minorities, as opposed to the entire county being composed of 32% minorities his/her stops should not exceed the 98% minority ratio. This would be a more accurate account of the area they are assigned.

Just one method of calculation for what it's worth.


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