The Montgomery County police department has no history of racism. In fact, in November 1999 they were awarded the Civil Rights Award in Law Enforcement by the International Chiefs of Police Association.
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The U.S. DOJ investigated Montgomery County Police for 3 years and found no evidence of racial discrimination within the department, nor in their treatment of citizens. | Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Justice has forced Montgomery County Police to perform "good" racial profiling on each and every resident stopped for a traffic violation. |  |
Newest First: Police to Record Motorists' Race (07/26/00) "Montgomery police officers are being trained to use hand-held computers designed to record the race, sex and age of all motorists stopped in the county, officials announced yesterday." Police Chief Charles Moose said that all patrol officers will be given a hand held computer with which to record the motorists' racial data. The computers cost the county $373,000. Originally, the County was to also install video camcorders in hundreds of squad cars just to make sure the officers don't make any "mistakes" when logging a motorist's skin color. The installation of the camcorders has been delayed while the department addresses privacy concerns and resolves potential violations of the Maryland wiretapping statutes which may have resulted from recording video and audio of citizens without their permission. [See Also: Charles Moose and the Profiling Puzzle, below.] "The new tracking system -- part of an agreement that settled a three-year federal civil rights probe of the department -- is scheduled to begin Sept. 1 [2000]. "Although the Justice Department probe -- prompted by more than 300 [unsubstantiated] reports of alleged police brutality forwarded by the local NAACP chapter -- found no evidence of brutality, an analysis of data showed county officers issued 21 percent of all traffic tickets to African Americans, although they account for less than 15 percent of the county's population. [Emphasis added.] The new racial-data system will record the skin color of all motorists stopped for any reason, whether they are issued a ticket or not, according to the Post. As part of the DOJ's intrusion into the operation of this local police department, police officers will also be required to attend so-called diversity training, apparently to make sure the officers know the difference between black and white (and yellow and brown and red). All of the race-recording equipment and diversity training of the officers is supposed to "help alleviate the perception of racial bias among officers" according to Montgomery County NAACP President Linda M. Plummer [emphasis added]. However, neither the Washington Post nor Ms. Plummer addressed the major role that the NAACP itself has played in creating exactly that negative perception. The Institute of Law and Justice has been hired to analyze the racial profiling data. The Institute has performed numerous other consulting jobs for the Department of Justice, as well as for Chief Moose's previous employer, the city of Portland, Oregon. (Based on the Washington Post story, 07/26/00,
page B05, By Steven Gray) Privacy concerns put camera plans on shelf (08/04/00 - no link available) Police union asks who will have access -- Big Brother won't be hitching a ride any time soon with Montgomery County police. "The U.S. DOJ wanted Montgomery County Police to install video cameras in all patrol cars as part of an agreement which forces police to record the racial identity of all citizens stopped for traffic infractions. But the video camera plan has been put on hold by the police union citing legal concerns. The Gazette reports that "County officials had hoped to install video cameras on 110 police vehicles as part of a pilot project that was expected to be under way by April or May. But the $624,000 project has been placed on pause until the county can edit out concerns raised by the local police union. "I'm not saying the problems can't be worked out, but it's going to take some time," said Walter Bader, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 35, which represents most of the county's 1,032 officers. "Among the union's concerns, he said, is who will have access to the videotapes once they are removed from the cars and stored by the police department. "For example, Bader said, it was conceivable that divorce attorneys would demand copies of videotaped traffic stops to determine whether their client's husband or wife was in the company of another woman or man. "These tapes could be a divorce attorney's dream," he said.
"[Bader] said another concern is that officers could inadvertently violate Maryland's
wiretapping law by recording a conversation without consent. "State law allows
officers to videotape traffic stops, but not use audio," Bader said. "A
violation of the law is a felony." (Montgomery County Gazette 08/04/00 by Mark
Celender) Montgomery County Police Department Receives International Chiefs of Police Civil Rights Award (11-12-99)
"On Wednesday, November 3, 1999
the Montgomery County Department of Police was presented the Civil Rights Award in Law
Enforcement by the International Chiefs of Police Association. The ceremony took place in
North Carolina where the annual IACP conference was held. Blacks Commit More Traffic Violations than Whites in Montgomery County, MD (12/03/99) After 3 expensive years of investigating the practices of the Montgomery County, Maryland police department, the U.S. Department of Justice was unable to find any evidence that the police discriminated against any racial or ethnic group. However, the DOJ used their infamous disparate impact doctrine to assert that the fact that 21% of traffic violations in the county were committed by protected minorities, when protected minorities only comprise 12% of the county population, constituted prima facie evidence of racial discrimination. DOJ personnel have been strangely silent when asked whether so-called protected minorities may have really committed a disproportionate number of traffic violations. DOJ personnel continue to refuse Adversity.Net's requests for the data from their 3 year study. The liberal Washington Post published an article on December 3, 1999 about the DOJ study. That story bore the inflammatory and misleading headline "Montgomery Police Ticket Blacks at Higher Rate" -- because that was the only superficial finding that the DOJ could hold against Montgomery County. The Washington Post story reported, in part: "A three-year civil rights review by the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded that Montgomery County police did not use excessive force in a series of cases involving minorities but did give a disproportionate number of traffic tickets to African Americans. "Black motorists receive an estimated 21 percent of traffic tickets issued by county police, even though African Americans account for 12 percent of the population, according to a review by investigators from the Justice Department's civil rights division. [Nowhere in the course of DOJ's 3 year investigation into the Montgomery County Police Department did DOJ officials offer evidence that 21% of traffic violations in the county were NOT committed by so-called racial minorities. Thus, DOJ investigators did not ever dispute the possibility that 21% of all traffic violations in the county were legitimately committed by protected minorities.] "The federal probe began three years ago in response to [unsubstantiated and undocumented] complaints of racial harassment by county police [filed mostly by the county chapter of the NAACP]. "But three sources familiar with the review said the disparity in issuing traffic tickets was the most significant conclusion among more than a dozen delivered to county officials by the Justice Department at a meeting in October. "Montgomery officials have agreed to comply with several Justice Department recommendations, hoping to avert a federal lawsuit and end a review that County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) says cast a "dark cloud" over the department. "Two sources familiar with the findings, announced to Montgomery officials by Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee, said the review cleared the department of most of the allegations lodged against it. The investigators found no evidence of a policy--"written or unwritten" in the words of one source--that encouraged racial discrimination by officers or specific acts by officers that amounted to civil rights violations. "Sources familiar with the findings said the Justice Department raised questions about more than a dozen incidents in which Montgomery police pulled over African American drivers for questioning primarily because a witness to a crime had described the suspect as black. [Wait a minute! How is it racially discriminatory when a witness to a crime describes the suspect as black?] "But sources familiar with the talks said that if Justice Department officials decide to sue the county, the decision would be based primarily on the finding that a disproportionate number of African Americans receive tickets during traffic stops. "Montgomery officials have worried that the additional data could be used to distort the record of officers who work in neighborhoods with a high proportion of minority residents. "Furthermore, sources familiar with the findings say Justice Department investigators did not filter out those tickets issued to black motorists as a result of radar stops or accidents, possibly inflating the figure with citations where race may have no influence on the officer's decision.
The Washington Post reports that one county official familiar with the negotiations
between DOJ and Montomery County said: "We can't believe the Justice Department
wants us to stop issuing tickets to people who break the law simply because we bump up
against a racial or ethnic cap." (Based on the Washington Post story published
Dec. 3, 1999 on Page A01, by Scott Wilson) U.S. DOJ Press Release (01/14/00) [In this DOJ press release, the quota-friendly DOJ trumpets it's ability to intimidate Montgomery County, Maryland into accepting DOJ's demands that they perform "good" racial profiling. Nowhere in this press release does DOJ ever state that they found evidence of racial discrimination within the Montgomery County police department. Significantly, DOJ avoids using the dreaded term "racial profiling" in this press release, BUT the DOJ does refer to "race-based traffic stops". I don't know about you, but to me the phrase "race-based traffic stop" sounds like a pretty good definition of "racial profiling". DOJ really wants you to believe that the MCPD engaged in racial profiling without actually saying it, and without offering any proof. Editor.] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (202) 616-2777 WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888 MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND, SETTLES CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) will implement new and enhanced policies and procedures to ensure nondiscrimination in the way they provide police services, under an agreement reached today between Montgomery County, Maryland, the MCPD, the Montgomery County chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and the Justice Department. "The agreement, which must first be ratified by the FOP membership, resolves a complaint filed with the Justice Department by the Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP alleging that Montgomery County police officers engaged in racially discriminatory treatment of African Americans, including, harassment, race-based traffic stops, failure to adequately investigate and monitor discrimination complaints filed by citizens, and use of excessive force. Today's agreement establishes enhanced guidelines for traffic enforcement, documentation of traffic stops, public outreach and public reporting, complaint procedures, supervision, and training for police officers and their supervisors. "Today's agreement will result in better policing for Montgomery County," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "I commend the county, the MCPD, and the FOP for their willingness to work together with us to resolve this matter." "The Justice Department's investigation, which began in December 1996, was conducted under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. These statutes prohibit law enforcement agencies that receive federal funds from discriminating against minorities while conducting their law enforcement activities. "This agreement is really groundbreaking. We've come to the negotiations from different perspectives - Montgomery County, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the Fraternal Order of Police and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland - and reached an agreement that serves the interests of all the citizens of Montgomery County," added Lynne Battaglia, U.S. Attorney in Maryland. "As a result of the agreement, the County and the MCPD will:
"In addition, the parties will select an independent consultant to review and report
on the county's implementation of, and assist with the county's compliance with, the
agreement. The consultant will issue regular reports to the county, the police department,
the FOP, and the Justice Department." (US DOJ Press Release 01/24/00) END Montgomery County NEWS Articles. |
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