[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 166 (Tuesday, December 4, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            RACIAL PROFILING

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR.

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 4, 2001

  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, June 6, I inserted the letter 
of Gerald Beulah, Jr., to the Boardman Police Department. This letter 
regarded ``racial profiling'' by the Boardman Police Department.
  Today I would like to insert the response to Mr. Beulah's letter by 
the Boardman Police Department.

                                     House of Representatives,

                                    Washington, DC, June 14, 2001.
     Mr. Jeffrey L. Patterson,
     Chief of Police, Boardman Township Police Department, 
         Youngstown, OH.
       Dear Mr. Patterson:  Thank you for your response to Mr. 
     Gerald Beulah regarding his racial profiling case. I received 
     a copy of your response, and it will be submitted into the 
     Congressional Record.
       Please understand that this problem will not be resolved 
     simply by submitting your response into the Record. The fact 
     still remains that Mr. Beulah was pulled over a total of four 
     times, and was never issued a citation. As former Sheriff of 
     Mahoning County, I am very well aware of the perceptions that 
     the public has about officers of the law. I am also aware of 
     the fact that racial profiling does, in fact, exist in many 
     cities across the country. However, as Sheriff, I always 
     demanded that my officers convey professionalism and respect 
     to all the citizens of the Mahoning Valley, and as the 
     Representative of the 17th Congressional District, I am 
     demanding the same of you and your officers. Anything less is 
     unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
       Again, thank you for your letter, and I hope that you will 
     continue to look into Mr. Beulah's case so that the same 
     incident does not occur again. Should you have any questions 
     or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
           Sincerely,

                                      James A. Traficant, Jr.,

                                               Member of Congress.

                                  ____
                                  

                                                 Boardman Township


                                            Police Department,

                                       Boardman, OH, June 4, 2001.
     Mr. Gerald Beulah, Jr.,
     Youngstown, OH.
       Dear Mr. Beulah: I received your letter last Tuesday 
     afternoon and immediately initiated an inquiry into the 
     issues you raised. I am writing to advise you of my 
     preliminary findings and to invite you to meet with me or my 
     staff to discuss your concerns in greater detail.
       First, let me say that yours is the only allegation of 
     ``racial profiling'' by Boardman police I have received in 
     the nearly six months I have been chief of police here. From 
     the portions of the Robert Mangino and Dan Ryan shows on 
     WKBN-AM Radio 570 I heard, or that were relayed to me by 
     others, there did not seem to be any widespread perception 
     among the callers that African-Americans were particularly 
     subject to unfair treatment by my officers. Nor have I 
     received any complaints from citizens since these programs 
     aired, nor have I been contacted by any other members of the 
     media or by any community organizations on this issue.
       Since receiving your letter, I have checked some of the 
     more readily accessible statistics for indications of 
     disproportionate representation of African-Americans among 
     those cited by Boardman police for traffic violations. While 
     I am aware that the data on citations issued does not 
     represent all those persons who have been stopped by officers 
     but not cited, nonetheless I believe the proportional 
     representation is relevant to the issue. Last year, more than 
     three-quarters (77 percent) of those cited were white, and 
     less than one-quarter (23 percent) were African-American. To 
     place those numbers in context, I refer you to the most 
     recent Census data, which shows that Mahoning County as a 
     whole is about 16 percent African-American, and the city of 
     Youngstown-our nearest and largest neighboring community--is 
     about 44 percent African-American. I have used those figures 
     rather than the Census data for Boardman Township (2.4 
     percent African-American) because I believe they more closely 
     represent the demographics of those who travel our streets 
     and highways, due to the presence of several heavily-utilized 
     routes as well as the high-density retail and commercial 
     development within our jurisdiction.
       However, I don't dispute that the perception of ``racial 
     profiling'' exists within both the minority community and 
     society at large, not only here in Boardman and the Mahoning 
     Valley, but throughout the U.S. And this perception has been 
     given credence from anecdotal evidence in reports of 
     systematic race-based enforcement by the New Jersey State 
     Police, among others, although valid statistical data on the 
     problem has proven difficult to gather and analyze. We, as 
     law enforcement professionals, are truly troubled by both the 
     perception and--to the extent it exists--the practice of 
     racial profiling. In response, both the International 
     Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Ohio 
     Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), as well as chiefs' 
     and sheriffs' organizations in other states, have developed 
     model policies and training curricula to address the issue. 
     State legislatures have proposed or adopted laws requiring 
     policies and data collection, and the U.S. Department of 
     Justice has taken action against not only the Los Angeles 
     Police Department, but also, in our area, Pittsburgh and 
     Steubenville police.
       I assure you, as Boardman's police chief, I have been--and 
     will continue to be-alert for any indications of 
     discriminatory practices by my organization or any of its 
     members. I believe I have an experienced, educated, and 
     enlightened management staff, and a corps of intelligent, 
     well-trained, and highly motivated police officers, all of 
     them professionals dedicated to serving their community. 
     Nonetheless, I routinely monitor statistical data, read 
     arrest reports, review official transactions of all kinds, 
     and pay attention to informal conversations and offhand 
     remarks for indicators of discriminatory conduct. I also 
     receive frequent feedback from the public on the performance 
     of my agency and individual officers through correspondence, 
     phone calls, and personal contacts. Thus far--other than your 
     letter--I have had no cause for concern.
       However, prior to your letter, we had already undertaken 
     some proactive steps to further ensure that discriminatory 
     conduct is neither practiced nor condoned by Boardman police. 
     In March of this year, every Boardman police officer was 
     required to watch a 16-minute training video jointly produced 
     by the OACP, the Buckeye Sheriffs Association, and the Ohio 
     State Highway Patrol, to reinforce the unacceptability of 
     racial profiling. We have also been reviewing and revising 
     our policies to explicitly prohibit discriminatory profiling 
     of any kind. Among the draft provisions are the following 
     policy statements:
       Racial or bias-based profiling of any kind is totally 
     unacceptable and will not be condoned. The department will 
     utilize various management tools to ensure that racial or 
     other prejudice is not used by officers in deciding whether 
     to take official action.
       Officers are expected to enforce the traffic laws when 
     violations are observed, and to stop and detain motorists or 
     pedestrians when there is reasonable suspicion that they have 
     committed, are committing, or are about to commit a criminal 
     act.
       Officers are prohibited from stopping, detaining, 
     searching, or arresting anyone on the basis of discriminatory 
     profiling. This policy does not prohibit officers from 
     stopping or detaining individuals who reasonably match the 
     description of a specific suspect in connection with a 
     specific crime, when race, gender, ethnic origin, or age are 
     among the identifying attributes in the suspect's 
     description.
       I am sorry your contacts with Boardman police have not all 
     been positive ones, but I am pleased you have had positive 
     experiences as well. I sincerely hope I have adequately 
     addressed your overall concerns. If you would like an 
     investigation into any specific incident, please don't 
     hesitate to contact me for an appointment. By law, such 
     investigations must be handled through the proper procedures, 
     and are not made public until they are concluded.
       As Mr. Mangino read your letter aloud on his Friday 
     program, and Congressman Traficant has taken it for inclusion 
     in the Congressional Record and distribution to other law 
     enforcement agencies in the 17th Congressional District, I 
     have taken the liberty of sharing a copy of this response 
     with them.
           Sincerely,
                                             Jeffrey L. Patterson,
                                                  Chief of Police.

     

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