Bush signs bill to curb profiling

The law requires that a commission help train officers on how to better deal with minorities.

By Times staff and wire reports

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 21, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Sheriffs and police agencies will have to develop plans for making sure their traffic officers don't profile motorists by race under a bill signed by Gov. Jeb Bush.

According to a 1999 national survey, blacks and Hispanics are stopped more often than white drivers and are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched or have their vehicle searched after being pulled over.

The bill signed Tuesday by Bush passed the Senate and House unanimously and was supported by the Florida Highway Patrol, which has a program to keep troopers from engaging in racial profiling. It was pushed by Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, who is black and a former state trooper.

The bill requires a state commission to develop a training program for officers on how to better deal with minorities. By Jan. 1, police agencies must have anti-racial profiling policies in place.

The FHP last year began tracking the race and ethnicity of motorists it stops in an effort to head off racial profiling.

In January, the last month for which statistics are available, 15.8 percent of motorists stopped by the FHP were black, slightly higher than their percentage of the state's population: 14.6 percent.

The FHP data do not track Hispanic motorists.

In Pinellas County, police chiefs signed a resolution in May banning race-based stops and searches. Administrators said they hoped the resolution helps change a perception that discriminatory enforcement actions occur.

The resolution urges each Pinellas police agency to adopt a policy ensuring that officers do not make decisions based on gender, sexual orientation, race, creed or national origin. A month earlier, the Tampa Police Department had implemented a policy barring officers from targeting someone based on race or ethnicity.

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