Racial Profiling

Saying that Maryland State Police are withholding information on how complaints of racial profiling are investigated -- and violating the public's right to government information -- the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit yesterday against the agency . The suit, filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleges that the state police are improperly withholding records about any disciplinary actions taken in response to complaints of racial profiling...

African-American motorists are three to four times more likely to be stopped by police on Maryland roads than other drivers, yet they are no more likely to be carrying drugs or contraband. That suggests a pattern of illegal racial profiling, and in 1998 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Maryland State Police to stop the practice. The case was settled by a federal consent decree in 2003 after Maryland agreed to change some procedures and investigate drivers' complaints of racial profiling.

Howard County police officials announced yesterday they will begin a program that will allow them to weed out officers who use race as a basis for traffic stops -- a step taken by no other department in the Baltimore area and by only a handful across the country.Police Chief Wayne Livesay said his purpose is to open a "dialogue" with the minority community and reassure it that he will not tolerate racial profiling as a means to fight crime."I am not naive enough to think these things [racial profiling]

WASHINGTON - Extending a program that critics called racial profiling, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced plans yesterday to seek voluntary interviews with 3,000 foreign nationals in the United States to learn more about the threat of terrorism. Ashcroft said the effort would be similar to the Justice Department's earlier attempt, begun in November, to interview about 5,000 foreign nationals in this country. The attorney general said those interviews, which targeted mostly young men of Middle Eastern descent, produced "significant" leads and "fostered new trust" with Arab communities.

The state Board of Public Works approved a settlement yesterday of a racial profiling lawsuit against the Maryland State Police, ending a legal battle that began a decade ago when an African-American lawyer was stopped by a trooper in Cumberland and his car searched for drugs. Under the terms of the settlement, state troopers must videotape traffic stops, document the race of each motorist they stop and search, and distribute brochures explaining motorists' constitutional rights. "After 10 years and far too much litigation ... we're going to put this behind us," Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday.

There's but one plausible explanation for the arrest of 24 Hispanic men by federal immigration agents outside a Fells Point convenience store in 2007 - racial profiling. A recently released videotape and government documents detailing the incident provide a vivid look at how easily law enforcement can run amok when officers are only interested in making their numbers look good. The officers were agents of the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and they were supposed to be looking for illegal immigrants who had been ordered to leave the country.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will include a bill to curb race-based traffic stops in his legislative package for next year -- putting added political muscle behind a proposal that faltered in the waning hours of this year's General Assembly session. Glendening spokesman Michael Morrill confirmed yesterday that the governor had disclosed his intentions in a radio interview Thursday. He said the details of the legislation had not been worked out. Legislation to curb the practice known as "racial profiling" passed the state House of Delegates last year -- only to be caught up in a feud among Baltimore's African-American legislators.

Traffic-stop data released recently by the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County police departments have renewed a discussion about racial profiling in the community. Figures for early 2002 show that while traffic stops roughly paralleled the demographics of the city and county, black drivers were twice as likely as white drivers to be arrested during a stop by Annapolis police. The county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to ask the Annapolis Human Relations Commission to examine the arrest data for evidence of racial profiling, said Carl O. Snowden, an NAACP member and assistant to County Executive Janet S. Owens.

The House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday aiming to end the use of race by police in making traffic stops. "It's no longer a question of whether racial profiling is happening," said Del. Lisa A. Gladden, a Baltimore Democrat and the bill's chief sponsor. "The legislature has spoken that it is, and it is time to change." The measure goes now to the Senate, which is expected to approve it and send it to Gov. Parris N. Glendening for his signature. The bill is part of the governor's legislative package.

Howard County police released preliminary data on traffic stops by county police yesterday that they said indicate that they do not racially profile drivers. But the numbers show that blacks who are stopped by Howard police are more likely to be arrested or searched than whites who are stopped, and some critics said the early numbers signal racial profiling. Police agencies are required by state law to release 2002 traffic-stop data by March next year. Howard County officials released a portion of their statistics, complied between Jan. 1 and April 30, so the public could "see what we're doing," said police Chief Wayne Livesay.