Hundreds Protest Racial Designation

Placentia’s police chief on Wednesday ordered his officers to stop using the letter N as the racial designation on traffic tickets for African American motorists after nearly 900 people signed a petition blasting the practice as insensitive and racist.

The N stands for Negro and stems from old law enforcement racial abbreviations that haven’t been used for many years.

“I am an African American; I have never been or will ever be the ‘N’ word,” said Placentia resident Comelita Brown.

Brown, 43, was given a speeding ticket in Placentia on Jan. 15 by a white traffic officer. Brown later noticed that in the space designated on the ticket for “race” the officer had used the letter N.

The officer should have used the letter B, for black, Placentia Police Chief Russ Rice told the City Council on Tuesday night. That is the abbreviation used by the National Crime Information Center, which designates letters for other racial groups such as whites and Asians.

Police departments are not required by law to note the race of people who receive traffic citations. For departments that do record the race, court officials said almost all tickets use B instead of N to describe African Americans.

Most Placentia traffic officers use the proper racial designation, the chief told the City Council. The officer who wrote the citation is a former training official who taught procedures to recruits, police spokeswoman Corrine Loomis said.

Matt Reynolds, the officer in charge of the police services division, said Rice is “extremely sensitive” to Brown’s complaint. The officer who wrote the ticket, Reynolds said, was unaware how offensive it was to Brown but “I’m sure he knows by now.”

Rice said Wednesday that he has instructed the professional standards bureau to issue a memo on the proper racial descriptors for tickets.

Brown said she was disappointed that she did not receive a response from the city. But Loomis said that was inadvertent. Brown’s letter had gone to the city manager, who was on vacation. Rice did write Brown on Wednesday as a follow-up to her complaints at the council meeting.

Brown, who works for the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and some close friends brought the designation to the attention of their church, Friendship Baptist in Yorba Linda. At one Sunday service, 875 protest signatures were gathered and sent along with a letter from the pastor, the Rev. James D. Carrington, who asked Rice to end the use of the N designation.

Brown said her first reaction was that the officer was using a racial slur.

“Even if he meant ‘Negro,’ that’s demeaning right there,” said Winifera Harper of Perris, who attends law school with Brown.