Denver Takes On Police Profiling

Denver’s mayor ordered city police on Tuesday to stop gathering information on residents based on ethnicity, religion or politics, a largely symbolic rebuke following revelations the department kept thousands of secret files on peaceful protest groups for years.

Mayor Wellington Webb told the Denver Police Department to incorporate a City Council resolution curbing police powers into its internal policy manual by the end of the day.

The resolution, passed by the Denver City Council on a 7-4 vote Monday night, states that police should not gather information on people or groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation without probable cause that crimes had been committed.

The measure was pushed by civil libertarians, who were acting in response to the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which Congress passed last fall in the wake of the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The act gives law enforcement officials broader authority to conduct surveillance and searches, and deport suspected terrorists.

While Denver is not the first city to oppose the new federal law--San Francisco, San Jose and Portland, Ore., have passed similar measures--the resolution came on the heels of disclosures last week that Denver police have kept intelligence files on peaceful protest groups for years.

Glenn Morris of the All Nations Alliance, the organization that proposed the resolution, said the measure would reinforce internal police policies that prohibit racial profiling, which he said police ignored while spying in the past.

“This reaffirms that police need to get their house in order and see the importance of abiding by the policy of the city,” Morris said.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union displayed leaked police records showing Denver police had been keeping thousands of files on peaceful protest groups.