Justice
Dept. to Begin Racial Study Justice
Dept. to Begin Racial Study
Monday September 10 7:23 PM ET
By KAREN GULLO, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department will soon begin a study of racial profiling at local police departments but won't force police to participate, the Bush administration's civil rights chief said Monday. Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd said a study of whether police are singling people out for traffic stops based on their race should be voluntary - something critics say will create a major loophole and weaken the study.
Boyd said making the study voluntary will foster trust between the department and local law enforcement agencies. ``The preference is to have folks do it voluntarily, to be invested in what they're doing,'' said Boyd, a former federal prosecutor in Boston who was confirmed as the head of Justice's Civil Rights Division in July.
``We are not here to micromanage police departments all over the country,'' said Boyd in an interview with The Associated Press. ``The overwhelming preponderance of police officers are struggling mightily to get it right.'' The Justice Department will seek assistance from researchers and academicians who have studied racial profiling data from police departments to ensure the integrity of the study, he said.
The White House has made ending racial profiling a priority and has put the Justice Department in charge of studying and cracking down on the problem. Boyd said the department will work collaboratively with police departments to correct racial profiling problems. The department can bring lawsuits against law enforcement agencies with practices that deprive people of their civil rights.
Boyd said filing lawsuits against police departments is ``a last resort, not a first resort.'' ``If the facts suggests there's a real problem, and that problem was being meaningfully dealt with, that would be an instance where the Justice Department would have to reserve its right to litigate,'' said Boyd.
There may be some cases in which police develop specific information in an investigation - leads or witness accounts - that have a racial component. ``You couldn't ignore it, that's relevant information,'' said Boyd. But he said police departments must be careful not to treat people differently based on racial stereotypes.
``There may be general information about racial or ethnic groups that may as a statistical matter be more engaged in certain types of conduct that others,'' said Boyd. ``Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make the broader point that people should not be treated differently based on racial stereotypes''
The son of civil rights activists in upstate New York, Boyd, who is black, said he was probably the victim of racial profiling when he was college student in Philadelphia during the 1970s. He remembers being frisked by police officers on a number occasions while traveling in the city's subway system. ``I was not as casual about going out and about as I am today,'' said Boyd. As head of the civil rights division, Boyd is the administration's top enforcer of civil rights laws.
Asked about his position on affirmative action, Boyd said he cares deeply about equality for blacks and minorities, but his principal concern is about ``opening up opportunities and access for all people, especially needy people, regardless of their color.''
In response to a question about whether groups that get taxpayer dollars should be exempted from state and local anti-discrimination laws, Boyd said the government should be ``vigilant'' when federal grants go to groups that ``exclude people based on arguably impertinent personal characteristics or traits,'' especially when those people are taxpayers.
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