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-
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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
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