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
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L AT I N O S
S O U R C E :
P R E L I M I N A R Y
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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
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A Benefit for the American Diabetes Association & We Educate, Inc.
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E U G E N E
WHITES
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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
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1
200 r Prize W RE…
Lord Leebrick Theatre • 540 Charnelton Street
e
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Puli ENE PREM
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Produced by Special Arrangement with Dramatists Play Service
A EU
OCTOBER 16, 2003 13