[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 23 (Monday, June 14, 1999)]
[Pages 1065-1067]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Opening Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion on Increasing Trust Between 
Communities and Law Enforcement

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 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

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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 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.

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