[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E10]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRAFFIC STOPS STATISTICS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 1997

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, African-Americans across the country are 
familiar with the offense of DWB, driving while black. There are 
virtually no African-American males--including Congressmen, actors, 
athletes, and office workers--who have not been stopped at one time or 
another for an alleged traffic violation, namely driving while black.
  Law enforcement representatives may admit to isolated instances of 
racially targeted police stops, but they deny that such harassment is 
routine. the numbers belie this argument. Although African-Americans 
make up only 14 percent of the population, they account for 72 percent 
of all routine traffic stops. This figure is too outrageous to be a 
mere coincidence.
  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reached a similar conclusion after 
considering the 1993 case of a Santa Monica police officer who was 
found to have violated the rights of two black men he stopped and 
arrested at gunpoint. The court found that the case was an example of 
how police routinely violate the constitutional rights of minorities, 
particularly black men, by stopping them without just cause.
  But lawsuits alone cannot solve this problem. Last November, the 
American Civil Liberties Union sought a fine for contempt of court 
against the Maryland State police, arguing that police are still 
conducting a disproportionate number of drug searches of cars driven by 
African-Americans almost 2 years after agreeing to stop as a result of 
a 1992 lawsuit.
  Despite the agreement, State police statistics show that 73 percent 
of cars stopped and searched on Interstate I-95 between Baltimore and 
Delaware since January 1995 were conducted on the cars of African-
Americans despite the fact that only 14 percent of those driving along 
that stretch were black. Moreover, police found nothing in 70 percent 
of those searches.
  The evidence clearly shows that African-Americans are being routinely 
stopped by police simply because they are black. It is exactly this 
sort of unfair treatment that leads minorities to distrust the criminal 
justice system. If we expect everybody to abide by the rules, we must 
ensure that those rules are applied equally to everybody, regardless of 
race.
  In many ways, this sort of harassment is even more serious than 
police brutality. Not to minimize the problem of brutality, but these 
stops, this sort of harassment is more insidious. Almost every African-
American man will be subject to this sort of unfair treatment at least 
once, if not many times. And no one hears about this, no one does 
anything about it.
  With brutality on the other hand, these days, incidents of brutality 
at least come to light. The culprits may not be punished for their 
acts, but it is getting harder for the police to brutalize minorities 
without any fear of reprisals.
  The same cannot be said for harassing traffic stops. Police can stop 
the cars of minorities with total impunity. In fact, the Supreme Court 
recently expanded police powers by holding that police need not inform 
individuals stopped that they have a right not to consent to a search 
of their vehicles.
  Thus it appears that the problem of police stops is only going to 
increase. For this reason, I am introducing the Traffic Stops 
Statistics Act. This bill will force police departments to keep track 
of the race and alleged traffic infractions of those they stop. It will 
also require them to note the rationale for any subsequent search and 
the contraband recovered in the course of that search. In this way, we 
will increase police awareness of the problem of targeting minorities 
for car searches and we can discover the extent of the problem and 
hopefully reduce the number of discriminatory traffic stops.

                          ____________________