LAPD Worker Files Racial Profiling Suit Against Redondo Beach Police

An LAPD computer systems analyst filed suit Friday against the Redondo Beach Police Department, seeking $5 million in damages for what he alleges was a racially motivated traffic stop.

Firpo Carr, a civilian who provides computer training and support to the Los Angeles Police Department, says that a Redondo Beach police officer violated his civil rights in June by pulling him over and detaining him for nearly a half an hour without probable cause.

“He pulled me over because I was ‘driving while black,’ ” said Carr, who lives in Lawndale.

Surrounded by a small group of supporters, including singer Randy Jackson and community activist Najee Ali of Project Islamic HOPE, Carr served the Redondo Beach Police Department with his complaint Friday.

City Atty. Jerry Goddard said said he was amazed by the accusation, but declined to comment on its details.

Carr’s is the first racial profiling suit to be filed against the city’s Police Department in the eight years he has been city attorney, Goddard said. “The city of Redondo Beach has really taken a positive and aggressive stance, whether in crime or in hiring, to be colorblind,” he added.

Ali said the case is particularly important because Carr works for the LAPD. “It’s a louder wake-up call because it’s coming from one of their own,” he said.

According to Carr’s complaint, about 4:30 p.m. June 30 he was pulling away from a parking space at the South Bay Galleria when Officer Walter Sawall, who is white, pulled up behind him and requested that he stop.

Carr alleges that Sawall asked him what he was doing “way out here,” and then told Carr that a forgery had been committed in the mall. Carr says he asked whether he resembled the suspect.

According to the brief, after noticing that no white drivers were being questioned, Carr suggested that his detention was illegal. Sawall called for backup.

Police officials would not comment on the case.

Carr said that, having grown up in South-Central Los Angeles and worked for the LAPD, he was familiar with racial profiling but had never experienced it directly.

Jackson, a longtime friend, said he asked Carr whether he had shown his LAPD civilian identification card to officers when he was stopped. Carr said he did not.

“I said, ‘Good,’ ” recalled Jackson, “because you shouldn’t have to have a special badge to be treated with respect.”