Legislation requires troopers to note race of motorists

Troopers will record race, ethnicity, gender and the age of stopped motorists, and note whether they did a search or issued a citation, according to Hedy Weinberg, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

“Data collection is critical for discerning any patterned practice of racial profiling by law enforcement,” Weinberg said in a written statement.

According to the ACLU, racial profiling occurs when group characteristics rather than behavioral indicators such as reckless driving prompt law enforcement officers to stop a motorist.

The ACLU launched an anti-profiling campaign following the release of a Gallup Poll in 2000, records show. The poll of both blacks and whites found that 59 percent of Americans said racial profiling by police is widespread.

ACLU officials have since created a national hotline for people to report profiling and lobbied in support of anti-profiling legislation in Congress.

Melissa McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety, said the Tennessee Highway Patrol will not incur significant costs collecting the information. However, she said, it probably would be more beneficial for smaller departments to have the requirement instead of state troopers.

“We kind of see this as an issue to show up more in a local police department as a general rule rather than the state patrol,” McDonald said. “Because of the different ways we stop people … they’re usually driving 70 or 80 mph; we can’t tell what race or gender the driver is.”

The Tennessee General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the legislation, which was signed into law May 19, according to Lydia Lenker, Gov. Phil Bredesen’s spokeswoman.

For the study, Tennessee troopers will compile statistics from January 2006 until March 2007, then they will be analyzed by the State Comptroller’s Office.

Similar studies have been conducted in other states, according to the Institute on Race and Poverty. A 1996 study in Maryland found that while blacks accounted for only 19.6 percent of the drivers along Interstate 95, 72.9 percent of all motorists stopped were black.