    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [June 9, 1999]
    [Pages 904-906]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Opening Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion on Increasing Trust Between
    Communities and Law Enforcement Officers
    June 9, 1999

        Thank you very much. Madam Attorney General,
    Secretary Slater, Congresswoman Sheila
    Jackson Lee, Congressman Greg
    Meeks, Mayor Williams, and other distinguished panelists in the gathering: Let me
    say I will try to be brief because I want to get to the roundtable
    discussion, but there are one or two things that I want to say.
        First, I thank all of you for coming here. This is a truly
    extraordinary group of Americans, people who don't always see eye to eye
    on

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    issues, sitting down for a real heart-to-heart conversation about
    something that is profoundly important to all of us. And I thank you for
    that.
        Second, before we get into this whole issue about the safety and
    security of our communities, I'd like to say a few words about another
    important law enforcement issue that is breaking today in Washington,
    involving our efforts to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Just before
    the Memorial Day recess, the United States Senate passed a bill designed
    to close the dangerous gun show loophole, to require that safety locks
    be sold with every handgun, to ban the importation of large-capacity
    ammunition clips, and to ban violent juveniles from owning handguns as
    adults. Now the House of Representatives will take up such legislation.
        According to reports in the morning paper, the House leadership has
    decided to bypass the Judiciary Committee and just report out a bill
    that dramatically waters down the provisions in the Senate. It is a bill
    plainly ghost-written by the NRA. I think it is wrong to let the NRA
    call the shots on this issue. They've been calling the shots on this
    issue for decades now, and we have failed to do what is manifestly in
    the interest of our children and our community.
        Now, I don't know what else to say about this. But if the American
    people care about it, if we can still remember Littleton--it hasn't even
    been 2 months--then we ought to speak up and be heard. This is a
    classic, horrible example of how Washington is out of touch with the
    rest of America, and it is time that the rest of America corrected it.
        Now, why are we here? For several years now, crime has been going
    down in nearly every category, in virtually every community in America.
    In the areas where it is highest, or was highest several years ago,
    there is no question that one of the reasons, and perhaps the principal
    reason, that crime has dropped so much is that communities all across
    our country have put more dedicated community police officers on the
    street, working the neighborhoods, knowing families, knowing children,
    going the extra mile to help prevent crime in the first place.
        Now, that has worked very well on the whole. But we also know that
    we have a major problem, which in some places has gotten worse as our
    communities have grown increasingly diverse. While public confidence in
    the police has been growing steadily overall, people of color continue
    to have less confidence and less trust and believe that they are
    targeted for actions by the police not because of their illegal conduct
    but because of the color of their skin.
        We have to restore the trust between community and police in every
    community in America. It is the only way that community policing can
    really work to make our streets safe. The vast majority of police
    officers do great honor to the badges they wear with pride. But we must
    continue to hold accountable those who abuse their power by using
    excessive or even deadly force. These cases may be relatively rare, but
    one case can sear our hearts forever.
        We also must stop the morally indefensible, deeply corrosive
    practice of racial profiling. Last year I met with a group of black
    journalists, and I asked how many of them had been stopped by the
    police, in their minds for no reason other than the color of their skin,
    and every single journalist in the room raised his hand--every one.
        People of color have the same reaction wherever you go. Members of
    Congress can tell this story. Students, professors, even off-duty police
    officers, can tell this story. No person of color is immune from such
    humiliating experiences. A racial profiling is, in fact, the opposite of
    good police work, where actions are based on hard facts, not
    stereotypes. It is wrong; it is destructive; and it must stop.
        As a necessary step to combat it, we, too, need hard facts. Today I
    am directing my Cabinet agencies to begin gathering detailed information
    on their law enforcement activities. The Justice Department will then
    analyze this data to assess whether and where law enforcement engage in
    racial profiling and what concrete steps we need to take at the national
    level to eliminate it anywhere it exists. We are committed to doing
    this, and we hope that all of you will support us in this endeavor.
        Of course, we must also recognize that only a fraction of our law
    enforcement officers work under the jurisdiction of the Federal
    Government. So today I ask all State and local police forces and their
    agencies to make the same commitment to collecting the same data. And I
    ask Congress to provide them with the resources they need to take this
    vital step, as the bill sponsored by Representative Conyers would do.
        We all have an obligation to move beyond anecdotes to find out
    exactly who is being stopped and why. We all have an obligation

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    to do whatever is necessary to ensure equal protection under the law.
        Some say police misconduct is an inevitable byproduct of the
    crackdown on crime. I don't believe that's so. As a society, we don't
    have to choose between keeping safe and treating people right, between
    enforcing the law and upholding civil rights. We can do both. Everybody
    in this room knows it, and you know we have to do both.
        We have seen this happen in city after city: in Boston, where the
    community is involved at every level of problem solving, where crime has
    fallen and trust in the police and minority communities has grown; we
    see it in communities in Chicago and San Diego and Houston. We can see
    it in every community in America.
        We have our models. We need to work on them. We need to find out
    what is going on. We need to talk freely. We need to listen carefully.
    One of the things I have learned, much to my surprise, since I moved to
    Washington is that there are probably more words spoken and fewer heard
    here than any place I have ever lived. [Laughter]
        So let us listen to each other, as well as speak our piece. Let us
    emerge from this conference with a concrete plan of action for keeping
    up the work. We can do it. We must start today.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. in the Cotillion Ballroom at the
    Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor
    Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC.