To:  Governor Christine Whitman
From:  Ted Goertzel
Date:  March 22, 1999
Subject:  Racial Profiling Controversy Concerning the New Jersey State Police

ISSUE:  The New Jersey State Police are often accused of stopping individuals for questioning and searches based on their race.  This practice is prohibited by official policy, but many citizens believe that it takes place anyway.  There is no question of changing the policy, the issue is how to make sure that the police follow it and that citizens know they are following it.  Another issue is improving the morale and effectiveness of the State Police, which has suffered from this issue.

BACKGROUND:  Judicial opinions, legal documents and complaints from motorists document a long history of controversy about these practices.  Recently, a 1996 ruling by a Gloucester County Superior Court judge found that troopers conducted racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike.  In 1998, a federal court verdict found that the state police discriminated and retaliated against a minority trooper, and in 1999 a trooper filed a suit claiming he was required to engage in profiling.   A few weeks ago, you were forced to dismiss the Chief of the New Jersey State Police because of remarks he made in an interview which seemed to provide a rationale for racial profiling.  The firing of the Chief, and the lawsuits and criticisms of officers, have led to considerable resentment among the officers and there is evidence of a deliberate cut in the number of arrests.

OBJECTIVES:  Our objectives are:

1. To make sure that the State Police follow the policy guidelines prohibiting racial profiling.
2. To make sure that the State Police are perceived as treating citizens of all racial groups equally and fairly.
3. To maintain the morale of the State Police.
4. To maximize the effectiveness of the State Police in fighting crime, consistent with the ethical guidelines prohibiting racial profiling.
5. To achieve a substantial decrease in the number of racial harassment complaints reported to the State Police.

• A firm statement by the Governor and the new chief of the State Police that profiling will not be allowed.
1. Pro:  This puts the state on record and might have some influence on officers' behavior.  It would be important as evidence of the state's good intentions in lawsuits.
2. Con:  The credibility of such statements is low, the governor and the chief have already issued such statements and they are generally not believed.  State police are known to be resentful of such statements, as mentioned in  anonymous email letter from a state trooper which has come to our attention.  Police have recently been reported to be on a work slowdown, writing few tickets.  This shows a lack of  respect for statements by the Governor.
• Increased emphasis on racial sensitivity in training of new State Police officers
1. Pro: Officers typically receive about six months of academy training, including no more than one seminar on diversity training.  This could easily be expanded.  Police have little training in verbal communication skills or intercultural sensitivity, so more training might be helpful.
2. Con:  Attitudes and skills learned on the job from experienced officers are generally viewed as more important.  Informal socialization is likely to overwhelm the effects of training in the academy.
• Special training seminars for officers on racial sensitivity and human relations skills.
1. Pro:  This would be good for public relations, making it clear that we were doing something.  If it is done well, officers may learn some new skills and become more responsive to the issue.
2. Con:  Officers are likely to resent being required to spend time in seminars, and to view them as indoctrination.
• Improving recruitment of minority officers.
• Pro:  This would change both the image and the culture of the force.
• Con:  Recruitment is generally done by competitive examinations, and minorities score lower on the average.  Giving preferences is questionable legally and causes resentment by white officers.
• Establishing Civilian Review Board to investigate complaints of racial bias, including members of the community as well as police officers.
• Pro:  This would give the community a sense of involvement, and might make the officers more careful.  As of 1995, there were at least 90 such boards nationwide, according to CQ Researcher.
• Con:  Community review boards are strongly resented by police, and may become vehicles for ideologically motivated attacks on the police.  It may be difficult to choose members of the public who will function effectively and judiciously.  Results of the New York Citizen Complaint Review Board have been disappointing in the opinion of the director of the ACLU.  A criminologist in Cincinnati says that "95% of brutality complaints are ruled unfounded simply because you don't have enough witnesses."
• Videotape all encounters between State Police and motorists.
• Pro:  This is already being done.  It provides evidence to respond to complaints of harassment, and may cause officers to be more careful.
• Con:  Officers are resentful of money being spent on this equipment.  It makes officers feel that they are not trusted to do their jobs.
• Change the criteria used in evaluating State Police officers to give less emphasis to arrest rates and more to evaluations of fairness and human relations skills.
• Pro:  This would lead to fewer confrontations with members of the public, and better public relations.  A great deal of evidence, summarized in Chapter 14 of the book Sense and Nonsense about Crime and Drugs by Samuel Walker, shows that drug interdiction is ineffective.  Speed law enforcement, also, seems to be of little objective value - there has been no apparent increase in accidents during the ticket writing slowdown by the State Police.  State Police could be reassigned to other duties, such as patrolling high crime neighborhoods.
• Con:  Crime might go up as a result of less enforcement of the laws.  Measurement of human relations skills is difficult, while arrest rates are objective.  Drug interdiction and speed law enforcement are part of the professional ideology of the State Police, so abandoning these activities would further sap morale.
• Use undercover groups of civilian volunteers to test the procedures used by the State Police.
• Pro:  This would provide good evidence and help to root out police who deliberately violate the guidelines.
• Con:  This will lessen the morale of the state police, increasing the tendency for them to be cautious rather than effective.
• Require the police to keep statistics on the race of every motorist they stop, whether a citation is issued or not
• Pro:  This will provide good evidence of racial profiling, if it exists, and make officers more careful.  This approach has recently been implemented in San Jose, California, and it seems to be well accepted.
• Con:  It is an additional paperwork burden, and it may lead officers to make stops based on quotas rather than on evidence.

References:

    An article by Jodi Wilgoren in the New York Times of April 9, 1999, titled Police Profiling Debate: Acting on Experience, or on Bias provides an excellent overview of this issue.  Many other stories are available by searching the Times site at http://www.nytimes.com.

     A story by By Douglas A. Campbell and Howard Goodmanin in the Philadelphia Inquirer of March 7, 1999 titled "The path to glory for N.J. troopers: Arrests, arrests" provides a good overview with suggestions of organizational changes which might be helpful.  The essay is also posted on this site in case the Inquirer site should drop it.

    The inquiry of the British McPherson commission into racial issues concerning the British police provided a list of seventy recommendations, many of which would be equally applicable in the United States.  The British report responded to incidents similar to those which have received so much attention in the United States.

    A computer search of the Uncover index suggests that scholarly journals have not yet addressed the issue of "profiling" as such.  There are, however, some articles with the keywords "police racism."  The journal CQ Researcher for NOV 24 1995 v 5 n 44, page 1043 has an article which addresses the questions: Does police work breed misconduct? Is there a link between brutality and corruption? Does racism play a major role in police misconduct? Can misconduct be rooted out?  This journal is in the reference section of the Rutgers/Camden library at H35.E35 yr.1995.

    A search of the Vale Periodical Abstracts through the Rutgers Library System found:

• the full text of a U.S. News and World Report article by Angie Cannon from VOL/ISSUE NO: v126n10 PAGE(S): 72, Mar 15, 1999, titled DWB: Driving while black.
• the full text of an article by Hugh B. Price from the NAACP publication Crisis VOL/ISSUE NO: v105n3 PAGE(S): 14 Jul 1998 titled The offense: "Driving while black"
• a story by Harriet Barovick of  Time Magazine titled Incidents in New Jersey and Maryland are heating up the issue of racial profiling by state highway patrols, from VOL/ISSUE NO: v151n23 PAGE(S): 35 Jun 15, 1998.