Davis Backs Bill Banning Profiling

Gov. Gray Davis announced Thursday that he supports formally outlawing racial profiling in California--an attempt at compromise that was immediately assailed as “cowardly” by the most passionate critics of the alleged practice, who noted that discrimination is already illegal.

Davis last year vetoed legislation by state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) that would have put hard numbers behind assertions that “driving while black” is treated as an offense in California. But the governor said he and Murray reached an agreement Wednesday night on similar legislation, SB 1389, now pending in the Senate.

In addition to expressly declaring racial profiling illegal, the bill would require all police officers to participate in an expanded “diversity training program,” and to provide business cards with complaint numbers to all motorists they stop. It was immediately hailed as a major step by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People as well as numerous police agencies.

The legislation would not, however, force law enforcement agencies to collect information on the race and ethnicity of everyone officers pull over--the original intent of the Murray bill, which was strongly opposed by police groups.

“California law enforcement officers put their life on the line each day to protect the law-abiding citizens of this state,” Davis said in a prepared statement. “The vast majority of law enforcement personnel who do it right every day should not have their actions tarnished by the actions of the few.”

At a rally attended by hundreds of protesters Thursday on the Capitol steps, Murray said his deal with Davis would still give California the nation’s toughest racial profiling law.

But the senator was hardly off the stage before the protest’s organizer, the American Civil Liberties Union, blasted the agreement.

Representatives noted that the 14th Amendment already bans discrimination and that Davis was once again refusing to grant what they were fighting for: a state requirement that law enforcement agencies collect ethnicity data on those they pull over so police practices can be scrutinized.

“They set us up!” one woman in the audience shouted.

ACLU leaders branded Murray a “sellout” and Davis a “coward” for refusing to take on the police lobby, a major contributor to Davis’ 1998 gubernatorial race. Law enforcement leaders, including Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, had strongly opposed the data collection requirement, saying their departments did not engage in racial profiling.

At Davis’ urging, some police agencies have agreed to voluntarily begin collecting the data. But many, including the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, have not.

“You cannot address racial profiling without data collection,” said John Crew, coordinator of the ACLU’s national campaign on racial profiling, which is working to pass anti-profiling bills in nearly two dozen states. “Sensitivity training and a few business cards are not going to solve this problem.”

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante called the governor’s action on racial profiling a consensus effort and cited the support from both police and civil rights groups as proof.

Murray defended his decision to cut a deal with Davis, saying he had accomplished his goal. He pointed out that in last year’s veto message, Davis asserted that racial profiling was not a statewide problem--a statement that angered many civil rights groups.

Noting support from lawmakers such as state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and African American leaders such as Danny Bakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade in Los Angeles, he said he had pleased most of those active on the issue.

“The ACLU is in the business of doing rallies. I am in the interest of passing legislation,” Murray said.