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Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer presented the Police Bureau's plan (pdf) to address racial profiling at last week's city council meeting. The plan, which the council approved in a unanimous vote, includes a new policy requiring officers to give out business cards whenever they interact with citizens. Cops will also have to provide a written explanation for making contact with individuals. The Bureau will make an effort to diversify the police force through new hires and increase cultural competancy training and outreach efforts across the department. Portland Police is also exploring ways to collect more data on race and routine traffic stops. However, they are making an effort to keep the names of individual officers off the public record.
Other cities around the state and the region are facing this issue. The NAACP in Seattle reported last year that racial profiling was on the rise in their city and the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in July brought the sensitive matter of police bias back into the national spotlight.
Have you ever felt like race played a factor in your interaction with police officers? Are you a police officer? How does race affect your job and others' perception of you? What is the best approach to reducing and preventing racial profiling?
GUESTS:
- April Baer: Reporter for OPB News
- Scott Westerman: President of the Portland Police Association and sergeant in the Portland Police Bureau
- Jo Ann Bowman: Executive director for Oregon Action
- Michael Rouches: Public information officer and lieutenant with the Hillsboro Police Bureau
Photo credit: cleverswine / Creative Commons
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I know this is off topic, I was just wondering what people in the online forum would think about it.
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There is nothing wrong with training police to live by the Warrior Ethos. The police are a Military Style organization, and that works because at some point they may be required to kill another person.
Some Good reading on the subject is the Book "On Killing" by Lieutenant Colonel (RET) Dave Grossman. Below is the Army Warrior Ethos, I find nothing disturbing here.
I will always place the mission first
I will never accept defeat
I will never quit
I will never leave a fallen comrade
More people could use an ethos for thier work, or lives.
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'Angry Mom' said her son was stopped because of his race.
Her son was on I-5, at night; minimum 55 mph. How could the officer possibly tell the race of the driver?
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Did anyone put any weight behind the percentage of black/white/hispanic people that are actually behind bars for having committed crimes?
What about what parts of the city that these stops are occurring in? Are the crime rates higher in that area? Are there a larger makeup of particular races within those areas?
What about the severity of the finds in the event of a successful search?
It's frustrating that people are discussing political correctness when it comes to fighting crime.
Also there was some discussion about a police officer investigating gang activity. I think it's common knowledge that certain people in certain communities are predisposed to participate in this type of activity. Things like this shouldn't even be mentioned.
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Hey everyone~
Here's a link to last weeks' council meeting, if you want to watch some of the public testimony. It's not the final word on the subject - but it might give you a better sense of the range of community concerns, and how the Commissioners see these issues.
Click on the hyperlink for the 9-2-09 meeting.
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Greetings,
As the white mother of a biracial son, this issue critical to me and my family. As the wife of a black husband, we discuss this issue on a regular basis - with regard to police, education, church, and just walking down the street and meeting our mostly white neighbors. Both my husband and I have been very impressed with Chief Seizer. We listened attentively to her interview on Talk of the Nation, in response to the arrest of Henry Gates, and were again, very impressed with her thoughtfulness and intelligence on this issue. While we are concerned about the obvious profiling that takes place in Portland, I also must add that it's important to put this into a more national context. My husband was pulled over at least once a month for various offenses such as "a dimmed tail light," etc while growing up in the Northeast (NY, CT, etc) and regularly harassed. In our 9 years of living here in Portland, he has been pulled over only once (for expired tags) and was treated very respectfully and not ticketed. He has never felt harassed here by the police, and is far more concerned with the subtle racism demonstrated by well meaning white teachers (he is a teacher). We are both very proud of living in a city where this issue is being actively discussed and addressed, and fell very relieved that much improvement will mostly likely happen before our 3 year old is driving.
Amy
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As a concerned citizen with a social conscience I see the need to add some commonsense to this subject:
when I travel throughout the country & Portland, the first thing I notice on the road is a vehicle traveling in an unsafe manner. most of the time it is NOT possible to see the driver, unless it is a person on a bicycle blasting through a red light or stop sign. Furthermore as I pass a driver obviously in their 20's driving a $30-$50 thousand dollar vehicle; I am certain this person did not get the money working at MacDonalds. At age 60 plus I find that the lawenforcement is constantly being tied up and prevented from doing their job . I find repeatedly that "racial profiling is being used as a weapon against laws being enforced.
Let us be very clear about the fact that we all bring with us the culture in which we were born; it's degree of civility and respect for society is blatently obvious, good or bad. PSU grad student.
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At age 60 plus I find that the lawenforcement is constantly being tied up and prevented from doing their job.
Being at least 60, you should have seen a lot of history supporting the logic of "tying the police up", which is not really tying them up but keeping them accountable to us.
I find repeatedly that "racial profiling" is being used as a weapon against laws being enforced.
Wrong. The ends do not justify the means. Police have to work around our rights...the rights given to us by The Constitution. We cannot give the police carte blanche. If we do, we become a police state and everyone suffers.
Just because it is illegal to transport drugs in a car does not mean it is OK for an officer to randomly pull over cars and rely on the driver's ignorance of his/her rights to initiate a search...even if the officer does find drugs in the car.
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Most police officers I have met personally were at least mildly racist. They all attempt to rationalize their racism by saying it is experience that colors their personal feelings.
I HAVE been pulled over in Hillsboro THREE times for driving while being Asian, and committing the sin of being in love with a Caucasian woman. Two of the three times my then fiancée was asked if she were being held against her will. Would any of the police officers on the show or listening care to explain how in two different stops, neither resulting in issuance of any citation, separated by almost a year, would BOTH result in an officer asking if a white woman was being held against her will by a dark skinned American of Asian ancestry?
I have been pulled over in Portland, Tualatin and Tigard as well, all for driving while not being white. I was in my full size Chevy pick-up for most of them, but also in my Mustang. Not once did it result in a citation.
The argument that the officer did not know the race is also fallacy, two times in Hillsboro, and once in Tualatin the office acknowledged they knew my race – once by starting the conversation “what is an Asian boy like you doing in a truck like this” (my truck was purchased when I was in the military in Texas, so it had Texas dealer stickers, and a Texas truck plate frame).
Instead of attempting to convince themselves and the listeners they aren’t racist and don’t routinely allow that racism to affect their interaction with the public, the police officers on your show and listening should be looking internally to hold their peers to a higher standard, where color is not the main factor, but the content of their character.
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Please hire the best candidates for a position, ESPECIALLY when it comes to our law enforcement.
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I can only imagine how frustrating it is to be stopped simply because of your skin color or your appearance. I have often been in similar situations, although not be because of my race, but because of my appearance. You are being judged superficially and this can be frustrating, people making assumptions about you, while knowing nothing about you. At the same time so many assumptions we make can be useful. These short-cuts are often common sense, and without them it would be hard to move forward. The brain makes assumptions and generalizations about all kinds of things, we are wired to make generalizations in order to weed out every small detail and think on a higher level without having to process all the in-between.
Every race and every person makes these assumptions. The person being stopped makes an assumption about the officer. If the person is black and the officer is black, the person stopped is probably less likely to feel they were stopped because of their race. You can go on and on with these assumptions. I feel based on the statistics we have it is hard to draw any concrete conclusions about this topic. If we use statistics to make suggestions about profiling, then I suppose we have to use statistics of criminal activity to make assumptions about criminals.
Which side wins? Who has the right to their assumptions? Where do you draw a line? How far back should you go? Where does the chain of assumptions stop? This topic is based on an assumption that police are making assumptions!
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Institutions need to approach this problem by first acknowledging that white privlege exists and that all people operate within the framework that society functions with white as the dominant culture. When we can start having an open dialogue about this power structure instead of trying to use statistics to prove if an individual, e.g. a police office, is a racist only then will we start to change the role race plays in society.
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I was stopped for speeding--no racial profiling issue--in an area of Washington State where the largest minority population is Native American. I'm Native American. After the officer got back in his car, I noticed that he noted my race as Caucasion on the ticket. Well, no one with 20/20 vision could possibly mistake me for Caucasion. It just made me wonder . . . What keeps officers honest in their reporting of "perceived race"?
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Note to Officer Westerman on the point he just made - I did ask one officer for his name and a card, which he provided, but all it did was enrage him. He literally turned red, his tone became even more demeaning and he demanded to search my truck. That is what happens with the status quo. This was a Hillsboro PD officer.
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If I was a Police officer on the street I would not want to give my name and business card to a known gang member. I think we owe some discretion to the people who are on the street every day risking there lives to keep us all safe. They deserve the right to not give out personal information to known gang members for their own family’s safety. Mike Walling 9/9/09
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As the wife of a member of the police bureau, I find it disheartening that people are so quick to label officers. There are a large number of factors that are involved in police decision-making. It is offensive to me to hear the majority of callers stating that they believe the police are racist. Do you know any personally? Does JoAnn Bowman? I'd love to speak with her about my family and our beliefs and the challenges of police work.
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This topic attempts to divert the public's attention from the real issue of klass distinction! You do not care if some lady's son gets pulled over for no reason as long as it is not your son! The difference is the police and others with resources know how to navigate the system if it does happen to them. But they do not get pulled over because their buddies always look the other way. When you try to report them no one wants to take the report. If the stars align and they do get caught they get a slap on the wrist. Officer anderson in salem got a measly 3 months for raping three women on duty! The men and women who new about this crime and any other committed by sworn officials are men and women of no honor and should be stripped of their badge.
The nice sheltered people of this state have no one to blame but themselves for this mess. They have been told for a long time the consequences of apathy and silence. Now the goons are coming for them.
Victor Reppeto
Dallas, Or
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Take the money from public safety to fund Head Start and Oregon Family Support Network for all families willing to participate.
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Victor,
Thanks for your comment.
I just wanted to add a bit of information for clarification.
The name here is different — Alexander, not Anderson — as are some of the published details, but I think this is the case you're referring to:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october082007/sterling_sentence_10807.php
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Yesterday at the beginning of the show you stated that contraband was found 33% of the time when searching cars that belonged to white drivers. You then said that "the number is lower" for minority drivers, but not by much, but you didn't want to bog us down with numbers. In the time it took to say that you didn't want to "bog us down" with the numbers that are the basis for the discussion on the air, you should have"
1. Given the number
2. Told us whether it was found to be statistically significantly different from the percentage given for white drivers.
If you're going to talk about the numbers at all, you should talk about ALL the numbers.
In my personal experience, I have found Portland Police to be unfriendly and rude. I generally only run into police on the job when I'm at community events like Bikeways or Bridgepedal, and I find it sad that they are not able to be more positive when interacting with the public. The one that I personally know talks constantly about how no one understands how hard their job is, no one appreciates them, etc. Well, maybe if you all weren't acting so negatively towards everyone around you, the public would think more positively about the police!
When I lived in Oakland 10 years ago the police that I ran into were downright friendly, and definitely thrilled to be working the University rather than downtown Oakland. I can only assume that the culture of the Police here is one of self pity.
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Last year I served on a grand jury for a month, and five out of possibly 250 cases were committed by a Hispanic person. What I find to be most disturbing is the media over representing Hispanic individuals as the perpetrators of crime. When I've asked KOIN and KATU about why this happens they simply state that is the information they get from the police. Crimes committed by Hispanic individuals are out of proportion in the media and nobody claims responsibility for it.
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Comments are now closed.
The increasing trend to militarize the police seems like a much more destructive problem for society than racial profiling.
The hot new training course for police officers is a ``Warrior Mindset'' class taught by a former West Point professor, more and more police officers are packing AR-15s into their trunks (or carrying them outright on the street as a show of force), and departments are switching to military-style uniforms. Some departments are even upfront in admitting that these moves are intended to instill a sense of fear (see Chicago and Springfield, MA).
Does it really matter if the police racial profile or not when you have officers in urban fatigues performing routine traffic stops? Yes, that happened to me on the outskirts of Gainesville, FL of all places.
Honestly, I would rather hear the Portland Police chief speak out against that kind of training and outfitting than promise that her officers will hand out business cards.