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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2012)
sportiani» (Obstruer July 18. 2012 Page 5 • L aw Portland’s Racial Profiling Reality Recognition grows that racism is behind numbers M indy C ooper T he P ortland O bserver by A new report on traffic stops by Portland Police finds that minorities are still being pulled over by officers at a dispropor- tional rate, but for the first time police Copwatchers say police have begun to recognize that racial profiling is a reason for the disparity. The current statistics were recently presented during a pub lic meeting. The accountability groups Portland Copwatch and the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, presented their analy sis of the data. According to the analysis, the number of traffic stops of Afri can Americans compared to their representation in the population continues to be irregularly high. “Even though it may not be a conscious decision on a daily basis, racism is embedded in the way institutions are set up to discriminate against people of color in jails, our police, and many say the school system,” said Dan Handelman, one of the founders of Portland Copwatch and ac tive member o f several steering committees. “And many of these institu tions exhibit disparities and un equal treatment because it is the way they have been designed, even if it isn ’t intentional,” Handelman said. Although the number of those being searched has gone down since 2004, he said the propor tion of Portlanders o f color who photo by M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver Portland Police racial profiling data shows that minorities in Portland continue to be pulled over in traffic stops disproportionately to other drivers. are searched remains twice as high as their white counterparts. Handelman said, in the past couple of years, the bureau has carried out training to lower the number of times when searches are appropriate, which has defi nitely led to a decline. He said, however, the dispari ties between African Americans and whites have remained the same. The num bers w ent down from 25 percent o f black driv- ers and 12 percent o f w hite drivers searched to 14 percent o f A frican A m ericans and 6 percent o f w hites searched. According to Handelman, im- provements have been slow be- cause of an unconscious denial of racism within the police bu reau. “There is always more work to do unfortunately,” he said. “And every time you think you made a little bit of progress there is something else that pops up that needs attention.” The police bureau began to release racial profiling data on all, the percent and difference continued on page 20 an annual basis in 2004, and it between how many white people has become increasingly clear that minority communities in Port- land are being stopped dispro- portionately to white people, he said. Athough it is mentioned in the Constitution that it is illegal to search a person without suspi cion, Handelman said it becomes extremely telling when officers make the decision to search 1549 SE Ladd somebody because they think they have some kind of contra- band on them. Portland: (503) 244-2080 “T hose rates (num ber of Hillsoboro: (503) 244-2081 searches) have been consis- Facsimile: (503) 244-2084 tently, for African Americans Email: Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com and Latinos, twice the rate of white people since 2004,” he said. B eg in n in g in 2006, data sho w ed A frican A m ericans were being stopped and searched 520 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204 • 503-796-9250 four times their representation of the population. A filli “Even though, they are actu- ally searching fewer people over- THE LAW OFFICES OF Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law Portland, Oregon Avalon Flowers service flower experience Wells Fargo Lending Award The U.S. Small Business Administration of fice in Portland has named Wells Fargo its 2012 Community Spirit Lender of the Year. The SB A selected Wells Fargo for this award based on the company's "impactful lending across the board" to socially or economically disadvan and A frican A m ericans and Latinos are being searched has remained the same and gotten a little worse,” he said. What is more telling, he said, is how often they find contra band on people based on race. “So their claims of not being able to see what kind of race a person is goes out the window.” A ccording to H andelm an, while the police bureau conducts more searches of African Ameri cans and Latinos, but they are also finding less illegal items on them. “The police were saying there is no such thing as racial profiling and explaining the numbers say ing you can’t always see what color a person is at night,” said Handelman. “But it is not the stops that have gotten worse; it is the question of what happens taged business owners in Oregon and southwest Washington. 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