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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2003)
in the system.” EPD should go beyond trainings and workshops to address the racial profiling problem in the department, Coleman says. The city should have an independent citizen review board to discipline officers who dis- criminate, he says. Coleman says the police union shouldn’t resist weeding out racist cops in the depart- ment. “I don’t want to see the union coming in,” he says. “There’s that strong blue line they will hold up in almost any situation.” Finding officers that don’t have a “cowboy mentality” about policing is also important, he says. “If we don’t do a better job of recruiting, the problem will continue.” DRIVING WHILE LATINO Urbina of El Centro says EPD has recruit- ed more Latino officers in recent years. “They have done a tremendous effort to do that.” EPD now has 173 sworn officers of which 84 percent are white. Seven officers are Hispanic and eight are black. Those numbers are about equal to the percentage of black and Hispanic residents in Eugene. Diversifying the department has not been easy. In 1997, a consultant study found signif- icant opposition to recruiting minorities with- in EPD. Officers supportive of the recruiting “perceive that the department is still dominat- ed by a white-male-officer culture that has yet to fully accept diversity,” the study by the Police Executive Research Forum found. Urbina says she has heard complaints of racial profiling from Latinos, but some others say the situation in Eugene is better than in California. “It goes all across the board.” Urbina says a scientific survey of local Latinos could help establish what most think about their treatment by Eugene police. Traffic stop statistics indicate that com- pared to whites, Latino drivers were more Police Stop Blacks, Latinos at Higher Rate Stop Rates for Males per 1,000 residents 350 likely to have multiple occupants in their car when stopped by police. Latinos were also more likely to be held for longer by police after a stop. Twice as many Latino stops last- ed more than 16 minutes, compared to whites, although some of the delay could be due to language barriers. Eugene’s Latino population jumped 124 percent in the last decade, and Urbina says it’s important for EPD to address the profiling problem now with more diversity training before the problem grows. Emilio Hernandez, director of the UO High School Equivalency Program and a for- mer chair of the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs, says he believes that, if any- thing, the EPD data probably underestimates the racial profiling problem. Hernandez says he’s heard many com- plaints, especially from young male Latinos driving nice cars and pulled over for minor traffic issues. “They felt they were being sin- gled out and, of course, they probably were. The police aren’t going to admit that.” Hernandez says Latinos often don’t feel that they can refuse when an officer asks to search their vehicle. “The fear factor is overwhelming.” Widespread resentment of the searches in the Latino community has hurt the EPD’s efforts at community policing, Hernandez says. “It comes back around to ‘Why should I help the police if they are continuing to bother me?” EPD Williams says the data showing higher stop rates and search rates for blacks and Latinos “does concern us and we’re looking into it further.” Williams says the department will collect another year of data and may try to count the races of drivers in the downtown area to get more accurate stop rate numbers. A larger share of the black and Latino drivers stopped were stopped in the city’s downtown patrol district, where EPD concentrates patrols due Police Search Blacks, Latinos at Higher Rate Percentage of Stops Where a Search Occurred 18 329 15.6 16 300 14 250 12 200 150 182.1 10 149.7 8.1 8 6 100 5.9 4 50 2 0 WHITES * L AT I N O S S O U R C E : P R E L I M I N A R Y BLACKS R E P O R T O N T H E 2 0 0 2 Motivating and inspiring people to make a difference. Y OLANDA K ING Yolanda King, Actress, Activist and the eldest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will be bringing a message of hope and unity in these times of local and national uncertainty focusing on Dr. King’s vision for peace, justice and equality for all. O CTOBER 22 ND 7 PM AT THE M C D ONALD T HEATRE 1010 W ILLAMETTE • E UGENE , OR 97401 Tickets available at all TicketsWest locations or at the door $10 adults • $8 students & seniors 1-800-992-8499 or 541-342-0606 Proudly sponsored by: Wells Fargo Mortgage • Eugene Weekly • Kinko’s • KLCC • Starbucks Albertson’s • SIGNS of the Times Inc. A Benefit for the American Diabetes Association & We Educate, Inc. 0 E U G E N E WHITES P O L I C E L AT I N O S D E P A R T M E N T V E H I C L E BLACKS S T O P D A T A . * UO School of Music World Music Series presents Classical Music of North India Rajeev Taranath, sarod Abhiman Kaushal, tabla Friday, Oct. 17 8 p.m., BEALL HALL UO School of Music $10 General Admission, $8 students & seniors, at the door only. Free lecture-demo at 3:30 p.m., EMU Ben Linder Room THANKS EUGENE WEEKLY READERS FOR VOTING US BEST LIVE THEATER! “…suffused with wit and humanity.” – New York Magazine Lord Leebrick Theatre Company presents PROOF by David Auburn Directed by Craig Willis With: Jennifer Coombs, Liam Drumm Valerie McMahon, and Bary Shaw October 1-25 • Th - Sat • 8pm Matinees: Sunday, October 12 & 19 • 2pm Previews: October 1 & 2 • Gala Opening October 3 t Play es RD - B a… Admission $12 - $16 • For Tickets Call 465-1506 Y AWA inning Dram N O T 1 200 r Prize W RE… Lord Leebrick Theatre • 540 Charnelton Street e z IE t Puli ENE PREM G Produced by Special Arrangement with Dramatists Play Service A EU OCTOBER 16, 2003 13
