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{"id":9930,"date":"2014-01-06T11:30:17","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T19:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speakcityheights.org\/?p=9930"},"modified":"2014-01-07T10:17:46","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T18:17:46","slug":"san-diego-has-fallen-behind-on-combating-police-racial-profiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/san-diego-has-fallen-behind-on-combating-police-racial-profiling\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Has Fallen Behind On Combating Police Racial Profiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Diego Police Department has often failed to follow its own rules regarding the collection of racial data at traffic stops, saying the community isn’t concerned about racial profiling. A local black officers group, the NAACP and a city councilman disagree.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/iframe> \nVideo Credit: Megan Burks and Brian Myers<\/span><\/p>\nBy Liam Dillon and Megan Burks<\/span><\/p>\nThe San Diego Police Department and its chief, William Lansdowne, used to be national leaders in addressing concerns about racial profiling. Now they\u2019re not.<\/p>\nMore than a decade ago, San Diego police were among the first to use data to examine how frequently officers targeted minorities in traffic stops. Today, that policy has become the norm in big urban departments across the country. But in San Diego, the effort largely has fallen by the wayside. Officers here now track race in fewer than one out of every five stops and a sergeant in the department\u2019s research and analysis division wasn\u2019t aware that the requirement to gather the information still existed when we asked about it.<\/p>\nLansdowne isn\u2019t troubled by the decrease in the department\u2019s data collection efforts. He and his top deputies said residents don\u2019t believe racial profiling is a problem.<\/p>\n\u201cIt hasn\u2019t come up in years and years and years in interactions with the community,\u201d said Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman, who\u2019s in charge of the department\u2019s neighborhood policing efforts.<\/p>\nBut those who monitor San Diego police don\u2019t share that perspective. The head of the local Black Police Officers Association, the president of the local NAACP and a city councilman all said racial profiling happens in San Diego and they hear about it.<\/p>\n\u201cEveryone knows it exists,\u201d said Lei-Chala Wilson, the local NAACP president.<\/p>\nThe San Diego Police Department and its chief, William Lansdowne, used to be national leaders in addressing concerns about racial profiling. Now they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n<table width=\"320\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Stop_0966.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Stop_0966.jpg\" alt=\"Stop_0966\" width=\"300\" height=\"\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Stop_0966.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Stop_0966-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Stop_0966-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a> \nAn SDPD officer makes a stop along Euclid Avenue in Valencia Park. | Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nMore than a decade ago, San Diego police were among the first to use data to examine how frequently officers targeted minorities in traffic stops. Today, that policy has become the norm in big urban departments across the country. But in San Diego, the effort largely has fallen by the wayside. Officers here now track race in fewer than one out of every five stops and a sergeant in the department\u2019s research and analysis division wasn\u2019t aware that the requirement to gather the information still existed when we asked about it.<\/p>\nLansdowne isn\u2019t troubled by the decrease in the department\u2019s data collection efforts. He and his top deputies said residents don\u2019t believe racial profiling is a problem.<\/p>\n\u201cIt hasn\u2019t come up in years and years and years in interactions with the community,\u201d said Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman, who\u2019s in charge of the department\u2019s neighborhood policing efforts.<\/p>\nBut those who monitor San Diego police don\u2019t share that perspective. The head of the local Black Police Officers Association, the president of the local NAACP and a city councilman all said racial profiling happens in San Diego and they hear about it.<\/p>\n\u201cEveryone knows it exists,\u201d said Lei-Chala Wilson, the local NAACP president.<\/p>\nAnd city taxpayers recently had to foot the bill for an incident where police officers stopped young minorities for no reason.<\/p>\nThis spring, <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Summary-Judgment-Rulilng-in-Harrell-and-Robinson-Lawsuit-Against-SDPD.pdf\">a federal judge ruled<\/a> that two officers violated the Fourth Amendment rights of two black residents, Dante Harrell and Shannon Robinson, during a City Heights traffic stop in 2010. Harrell and Robinson\u2019s lawsuit didn\u2019t specifically allege racial profiling, but Harrell said he believed the stop happened because police look for reasons to pull over minorities in minority neighborhoods. The city <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell-and-Robinson-Settlement.pdf\">agreed to settle<\/a> the case last month for $450,000.<\/p>\nThe lawsuit and renewed national scrutiny over racial profiling got Lansdowne\u2019s attention. He has ordered a <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-SDPD-Racial-Profiling-Data-Collection-Memo.pdf\">new round of data collection<\/a> on race at traffic stops, saying profiling has again become an issue in San Diego.<\/p>\nCriminal justice experts, however, say racial profiling is always an issue: Incidents can erode trust between police and the communities they serve. For some people of color who believe San Diego police officers have pulled them over for that alone, the traffic stops have taken their toll.<\/p>\n“Nobody that I know or myself do I feel safe around [police],\u201d said Abdihakim Afewerki, a 26-year-old engineering student who is black. Afewerki frequently spends time in Encanto and Lincoln Park. \u201cIn my eyes, they’re not there to protect me, they’re there to harass me.\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"520\" height=\"293\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bZZn0RSf7L8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> \nAbdihakim Afewerki – with his two-year-old son Theodres – says he’s been stopped 10 times by San Diego police officers in Encanto and City Heights, where he spends time visiting his aunt and volunteering for Pillars of the Community, a faith-based group aimed at bettering southeastern San Diego. | Video Credit: Brian Myers and Sam Hodgson.<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018We Can\u2019t Be Afraid to Look at the Statistics\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nIn the late 1990s, civil rights groups in San Jose demanded action after allegations emerged of racial profiling in traffic stops. Lansdowne, San Jose\u2019s police chief at the time, responded.<\/p>\nHis department pledged to gather race and ethnicity information voluntarily on traffic stops to see how frequently officers pulled over people of color. Criminal justice researchers hailed Lansdowne as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cops.usdoj.gov\/html\/cd_rom\/inaction1\/pubs\/HowToCorrectlyCollectAnalyzeRacialProfilingData.pdf\">“father of data collection”<\/a> on police racial profiling. <\/p>\n<table width=\"320\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/XSDPDchief.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/XSDPDchief.jpg\" alt=\"XSDPDchief\" width=\"300\" height=\"\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9931\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/XSDPDchief.jpg 1296w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/XSDPDchief-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/XSDPDchief-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\" \/><\/a> \nSan Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne was called the “father of data collection” while police chief in San Jose. He led the department in an effort to monitor data on racial profiling and later asked San Diego police officers to record racial data. That effort has since slowed. | Photo Credit: Brian Myers, Media Arts Center San Diego<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n“We can’t be afraid to look at the statistics,” Lansdowne said when San Jose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/racial-justice\/police-and-community-react-san-jose-traffic-stop-data\">released its initial 1999 report<\/a>, which showed only small disparities between minorities stopped and the citywide population.<\/p>\nBut more than a decade later, Lansdowne, San Diego’s chief for the last 10 years, has few statistics to look at.<\/p>\nThe San Diego Police Department has had a policy to collect race and ethnicity data during traffic stops since 2000, making it one of the first big urban departments to do so, along with San Jose. The department has told officers they needed to gather this information <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2006-SDPD-Racial-Profiling-Data-Collection-Memo.pdf\">multiple times in the years since<\/a>. <\/p>\nBut the message didn\u2019t stick. A sergeant in the department\u2019s research and analysis division wasn\u2019t aware that a data collection policy still existed when asked in late October.<\/p>\n\u201cWe do not keep any demographics on traffic stops,\u201d Sgt. Laura McLean <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/SDPD-Emails-on-Traffic-Stop-Data-Collection.pdf\">told us in an email<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt turns out officers were keeping demographics on traffic stops \u2014 just not very much. In the first 10 months of 2013, <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Vehicle-Stop-form.pdf\">officers gathered racial information<\/a> on roughly 16,000 traffic stops, an amount equivalent to about a fifth of the citations issued over the same time. Officers pulled over an untold number of additional drivers without giving them tickets \u2014 or noting their race. Many officers gathered the information diligently, police officials said, but the amount of data the department collected decreased substantially over time.<\/p>\nLansdowne said the effort slowed because no one demanded the department analyze racial profiling in traffic stops, so he didn\u2019t emphasize the requirement to collect the data. In the meantime, other law enforcement agencies have surpassed the San Diego Police Department when it comes to being proactive on the issue.<\/p>\nSeven of the 10 largest police departments in the country currently have policies requiring them to race and ethnicity information on traffic or pedestrian stops even if officers don\u2019t arrest or cite the person stopped. An eighth department, Washington D.C., documents the race of those frisked by police.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RacialProfiling-Chart.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RacialProfiling-Chart.jpg\" alt=\"RacialProfiling-Chart\" width=\"520\" height=\"\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RacialProfiling-Chart.jpg 776w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RacialProfiling-Chart-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RacialProfiling-Chart-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\nThese data are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/reporting\/2013\/05\/27\/130527fa_fact_toobin\">cornerstone of a high-profile legal challenge<\/a> over the New York City Police Department\u2019s practice of stopping and frisking pedestrians in an effort to fight crime. Researchers found 84 percent of those stopped and frisked by New York police were black or Hispanic. Civil rights groups have argued these numbers show the practice is unconstitutionally biased against minorities.<\/p>\nResearchers who study the issue say data collection is a key part of a larger effort, along with robust diversity training and strict anti-bias policies, to prevent racial profiling.<\/p>\n\u201cIf there is a spirit and culture of transparency and accountability in the department, they\u2019ll collect the data,\u201d said Carol Archbold, a criminal justice professor who specializes in racial profiling issues at North Dakota State University.<\/p>\n\u2018Unless It\u2019s Happened to You, You Don\u2019t Know That It Happens\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen his own colleagues pulled him over for no reason, it confirmed for Benjamin Kelso that racism still existed in law enforcement.<\/p>\nOne time, San Diego police officers stopped him and told him he looked like he was on parole, said Kelso, who heads the local Black Police Officers Association. Another time, Kelso said, officers told him his blue track suit and Cadillac made him look like he was in a gang.<\/p>\n<table width=\"270\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Kelso_0130.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Kelso_0130.jpg\" alt=\"Kelso_0130\" width=\"250\" height=\"\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9937\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Kelso_0130.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Kelso_0130-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Kelso_0130-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a> \nKelso pictured at the location where he believes fellow SDPD officers racially profiled him at a traffic stop 20 years ago. | Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/benkelso.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/benkelso.jpg\" alt=\"benkelso\" width=\"250\" height=\"\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9936\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/benkelso.jpg 240w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/benkelso-131x300.jpg 131w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a> \nBenjamin Kelso, head of the local Black Police Officers Association, as a young San Diego police officer in 1990.<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nThese incidents happened 20 years ago, and in the decades since, Kelso has worked to be a buffer between the San Diego Police Department, where he\u2019s now a detective sergeant, and San Diego\u2019s black community, of which he\u2019s a part. He calls it being \u201cblack while blue.\u201d<\/p>\nThe department has made a lot of progress on racial issues in the almost 25 years he\u2019s been on the force, Kelso said, and he understands gray areas exist between criminal profiling and racial profiling.<\/p>\nStill, he doesn\u2019t know why Lansdowne and other department officials say that racial profiling isn\u2019t a community concern. He hears it all the time in southeastern San Diego. Racial profiling traffic stops, he said, do happen in the city.<\/p>\n\u201cIs it the norm? No,\u201d Kelso said. \u201cBut I think we would be remiss to say that they don’t occur at all.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the last five years, San Diego police have received on average fewer than a half dozen formal discrimination complaints, a category that includes racial profiling, a year. Internal investigations found none of the discrimination complaints valid. And Lansdowne said racial profiling hasn\u2019t come up in his meetings with community groups and leaders.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m unaware of any organized group in San Diego that has approached me about the issue in the last eight years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nWilson, the local NAACP president, disputes that. Her organization has held multiple forums on the relationship between the black community and local police. She recalled Lansdowne speaking to the NAACP at a recent monthly meeting where profiling was a topic. She\u2019s not sure why police officials would say no one has brought racial profiling problems in San Diego to their attention.<\/p>\n\u201cI would say that\u2019s untrue,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\nTold Wilson\u2019s comments, Zimmerman said both her and Lansdowne meant that police officials don\u2019t hear complaints about specific racial profiling incidents from community groups or residents. <\/p>\nWilson, however, believes San Diego police profiled her nephew, a 22-year-old Southwestern College student, during a traffic stop in summer 2012. Officers pulled over her nephew and his friend, she said, after they left a Padres game, saying their taillight was out. The officers asked if they were on probation or parole, and when they told the police they had been to the game, the officers quizzed them on the score. The officers let them go. When the nephew and his friend checked later, their taillight worked. Wilson said her nephew was too scared to get the officers\u2019 badge numbers, and that she didn\u2019t tell police officials about the incident, either.<\/p>\nCity Councilman David Alvarez, a mayoral candidate, said he believes the department has racially profiled recently, too. He cited the lawsuit over the 2010 City Heights traffic stop during a debate in the fall. Alvarez wants to see the department take profiling issues more seriously.<\/p>\nAnd Alvarez, who is Hispanic, said he too has been stopped unnecessarily because of his race.<\/p>\n\u201cUnless it\u2019s happened to you,\u201d Alvarez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K01aUdZ1UiM#t=111\">said during the debate<\/a>, \u201cyou don\u2019t know that it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/alverez_2_t600.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/alverez_2_t600.jpg\" alt=\"alverez_2_t600\" width=\"520\" height=\"\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9935\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/alverez_2_t600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/alverez_2_t600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a> \nSan Diego mayoral candidate David Alvarez. | Photo Credit: Angela Carone<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018It\u2019s An Issue Again\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nAfewerki, the black engineering student, expects San Diego police to pull him over every time an officer looks his way.<\/p>\n\u201cIt’s sad but it’s a part of life of being a minority in San Diego,\u201d Afewerki said.<\/p>\nRacial profiling matters because it can damage the relationship between police and the communities they serve, said Joshua Chanin, a public affairs professor at San Diego State. Perceived racial double standards can deter crime witnesses from cooperating with police and, at its worst, spark civil unrest, he said.<\/p>\n\u201cIt really is about feelings of legitimacy and trust between minority communities and the cops,\u201d Chanin said. <\/p>\n<table width=\"320\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Chanin_0176.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Chanin_0176.jpg\" alt=\"Chanin_0176\" width=\"300\" height=\"\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9938\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Chanin_0176.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Chanin_0176-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Chanin_0176-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a> \nJoshua Chanin, assistant professor or public affairs at San Diego State University says fostering a trusting relationship between the community and police helps cops do their jobs. | Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nIndeed, a recent incident shows how that sort of breakdown in trust, combined with police errors, can spiral out of control.<\/p>\nIn March 2010, San Diego police officers Ariel Savage and Daniel McClain were driving along University Avenue in City Heights when they typed a license plate into their system to check whether the 2005 Pontiac Sunfire they spotted was stolen.<\/p>\nThe plate didn\u2019t match the Pontiac, and Savage and McClain flipped on their lights to pull the car over. Inside the car were three young black residents, Dante Harrell, his then-girlfriend Shannon Robinson and their friend.<\/p>\nBefore walking over to the Pontiac, the officers rechecked the plate. They found they\u2019d made a mistake when they first typed the plate into their system. Everything matched when they typed in the correct number, meaning officers no longer had a reason to stop the car.<\/p>\nSavage, who also is black, got out of his police cruiser to tell Harrell the cops had screwed up, <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Summary-Judgment-Rulilng-in-Harrell-and-Robinson-Lawsuit-Against-SDPD.pdf\">according to court records<\/a>. But instead of just letting Harrell and Robinson go, Savage asked for their license, registration and insurance.<\/p>\nAt that point, the couple began showing clear signs of mistrust for the police. Harrell picked up his cell phone and hit record to videotape the officers. Robinson grabbed her phone to dial 911. She wanted to speak with a police supervisor; she\u2019d had a bad experience with Savage before.<\/p>\nListen to Robinson’s 911 call:<\/em> \n[audio:http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/911Call_full.mp3]<\/p>\nUltimately, a struggle began. Officers pepper-sprayed the couple, tasered Harrell repeatedly, dragged Harrell and Robinson to the ground and arrested them. At least 10 police cruisers and a helicopter responded. Prosecutors never filed charges against the couple.<\/p>\nHarrell and Robinson filed a lawsuit, alleging wrongful arrest and excessive force. In May, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Summary-Judgment-Rulilng-in-Harrell-and-Robinson-Lawsuit-Against-SDPD.pdf\">ruled the officers didn’t have the right<\/a> to continue the traffic stop after discovering they had entered the wrong license plate. The city <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell-and-Robinson-Settlement.pdf\">agreed to settle<\/a> the case last month for $450,000.<\/p>\n<table width=\"320\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell_4389.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell_4389.jpg\" alt=\"Harrell_4389\" width=\"300\" height=\"\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell_4389.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell_4389-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Harrell_4389-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a> \nDante Harrell in the City Heights parking lot where SDPD officers tasered him. | Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fu674i34SVo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> \nA routine traffic stop, which a judge later ruled was illegal, escalated when Dante Harrell and his then-girlfriend, Shannon Robinson questioned the stop. Ten police cruisers and a helicopter arrived for backup. Officers used pepper spray and tasers. | Video Courtesy of KGTV Channel 10 News<\/span>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nHarrell said he believes race may have been a factor in the initial stop.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was easier, way easier. A black neighborhood, a car full of black folks,\u201d Harrell said. \u201cIf I was somewhere else, that wouldn’t have happened. Not at all.\u201d<\/p>\nTop San Diego Police Department officials agreed the incident could be perceived as racial profiling, though they said their internal investigation did not show race was a factor.<\/p>\nLansdowne said his officers made a mistake when they asked for Harrell and Robinson\u2019s insurance information, but that it was an isolated incident.<\/p>\n\u201cI do not think it\u2019s indicative of a problem with the entire organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nStill, Lansdowne used the lawsuit, along with the New York City stop and frisk controversy, to make changes to the department\u2019s approach to racial bias.<\/p>\nPolice supervisors discussed the traffic stop and brought it up during daily lineups with rank-and-file officers. The department also re-enforced training on situations that do not involve arrests or citations.<\/p>\nLansdowne reviewed the department\u2019s racial profiling complaints and found they often came from people upset with San Diego officers asking if they were on probation or parole. He\u2019s planning a training bulletin that will advise officers to be more sensitive when discussing the issue.<\/p>\nAnd in late October \u2014 six days after a sergeant told us the department didn\u2019t keep the information \u2014 the department <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-SDPD-Racial-Profiling-Data-Collection-Memo.pdf\">issued a memo<\/a> to all officers reiterating the requirement to collect racial data every time they pull someone over.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an issue again,\u201d Lansdowne said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego Police Department has often failed to follow its own rules regarding the collection of racial data at traffic stops, saying the community isn’t concerned about racial profiling. A local black officers group, the NAACP and a city councilman disagree. Video Credit: Megan Burks and Brian Myers By Liam Dillon and Megan Burks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,264],"tags":[1589,1594,1171,1588,1593,1591,1592,2103,1586,990,308,289,1587,1590],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-public-safety","tag-abdihakim-afewerki","tag-aclu","tag-aclu-of-san-diego-and-imperial-counties","tag-joshua-chanin","tag-pretext","tag-pretext-stops","tag-pretextual-stops","tag-public-safety","tag-racial-bias","tag-racial-profiling","tag-san-diego-police-department","tag-sdpd","tag-stop-and-frisk","tag-william-lansdowne-chief-william-lansdowne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>San Diego Has Fallen Behind On Combating Police Racial Profiling - Speak City Heights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/speakcityheights.org\/san-diego-has-fallen-behind-on-combating-police-racial-profiling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"San Diego Has Fallen Behind On Combating Police Racial Profiling - Speak City Heights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The San Diego Police Department has often failed to follow its own rules regarding the collection of racial data at traffic stops, saying the community isn’t concerned about racial profiling. A local black officers group, the NAACP and a city councilman disagree. 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