U.S.

Clinton Slams Racial Profiling

June 9, 1999 / 6:36 PM EDT / AP

President Clinton instructed federal law agencies Wednesday to collect race and gender data on people they stop or arrest in a move to end racial profiling by police. "It is wrong, it is destructive, and it must stop," he said.

At a meeting of police and civil rights activists, Mr. Clinton said that while his executive order would cover "only a fraction" of the nation's law officers, he hoped it would spur state and local agencies to begin collecting such data, too. "We all have an obligation to move beyond anecdotes to find out exactly who is being stopped and why," Mr. Clinton said.

Police shootings this year have killed young blacks in New York, Pittsburgh and Riverside, Calif., and traffic stops based on a driver's race, an occurrence known casually as DWB - "driving while black", have prompted a national outcry.

The Treasury, Justice and Interior departments will develop, within 120 days, a plan for collecting data on the race, gender and ethnicity of people agency officers stop to question or arrest. Field tests on those plans would begin within 60 days after that.

Reggie Shuford, the American Civil Liberties Union's lead attorney on racial profiling cases, said Mr. Clinton's order would have "a domino effect" at the state and local levels, and would alleviate the problem in federal jurisdictions wherever it arises. "Wherever you have a predominantly white environment and there are people of color, they're going to be scrutinized beyond what is necessary. So if it's in a park, yes, it could happen in the Park Service," Shuford said. "Mr. Clinton's order ... confirms what people of color have said for a long time, and it starts the process of getting documentation to support those allegations."

Mr. Clinton also voiced support for legislation by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to provide funds for states to collect similar data. Law enforcement officials generally have resisted such efforts. "Our opinion on this hasn't changed," said Robert Scully, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents 4,000 police groups.

"There are laws on the books for people who feel they are being harassed, and vehicles for them to file complaints," Scully said Wednesday. "It would be better to invest more time in the laws already on the books rather than add another burden to law enforcement officers."

Mr. Clinton's order covers federal officers such as the police who patrol national parks, Customs agents and Immigration and Naturalization officials monitoring U.S. ports of entry.

The Customs Service is facing a class-action lawsuit by nearly 100 black women who say they were singled out for searches because of their race and gender.

Customs officials said 50,892 of 71.5 million international air travelers were subjected to a body search, mainly simple pat-downs, during 1998. Black and Hispanic travelers were subjected to 43 prcent of body searches last year, according to an analysis presented to Congress earlier this year by a Cornell University law professor.

Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has appointed a panel to review policies and procedures used by Customs inspectors; a report is expected in mid-July.

Mr. Clinton recounted how he once asked a group of black journalists how many of them had ever been stopped by police "in their minds for no reason other than the color of their skin." All of them raised their hands, he said.

"Members of Congress can tell this story. Students, professors, even off-duty police officers can tell this story," Mr. Clinton said. "No person of color is immune from such humiliating experiences."