Racial Profiling on NJ Roads - Black Suburban Journal

Green Party of New Jersey
Updated May 09, 2008
Racial Profiling on NJ Roads

The Black Suburban Journal
August 2001
Feature by Jerry Coleman

"Racial Profiling" has been at the height of discussion in New Jersey for the past few years. There have been various attempts by elected officials and by community leaders to bring about a change in the attitude that police officers display when they interact with members of the African American community. Many individuals and organizations have called for laws to outlaw " Racial Profiling".

State of New Jersey officials have admitted that "Racial Profiling" does exist within the rank and file of the state police department. As a matter of fact, the top brass within the department has encouraged its officers to target African Americans for stops based on the type of car that they drive. Many people in the the African American community have coined a phrase entitled "Driving While Black". In New Jersey, this greatly increases your chances of being stopped by the police.

Any law that address the issue of racial profiling must hold officers accountable for their actions. In addition racial profiling laws must include a component that requires
all police officers to take cultural diversity training classes prior to employment and every year while employed as a police officer. Cultural diversity training is comparable to an officer being required to go to the firing range each year to maintain proficiency in the use of firearms. Any law should also include in it a provision that establishes a monetary fine as a penalty against any police officer who is found guilty of violating any of the provisions of the racial profiling laws.

"Consent Searches" are currently used by various police officers. These type of searches also can be a tool to continue to promote racial profiling and intimidation by officers. As the law stands now, an officer can ask permission to search a vehicle
for any reason that the officer wants to give to the vehicle operator. The driver does
not have to be a suspect of any crime and the vehicle that is driven does not have to fit the description of being involved in a crime. In order to remove any arbitrary acts
of harassment on the part of the police, New Jersey must end consent searches
immediately.

"Civilian Review Boards" In order to evaluate and review the activities of the police
an independent civilian review board must be established. These boards must have subpoena power. I think that each municipality should have a civilian review board.
These boards should be elected by the people. The number of members of the review board should be the same as the number of members on the the local governing body. In addition, County and State police departments should come under review by the board in the town in which the incident takes place.

Everyone should realize that the establishment of a civilian review board is not a condemnation of law enforcement. These boards will actually help the law enforcement agencies by removing them from making internal review of their own members that may be brought up on charges before the review board. Those that oppose the establishment of review boards should realize that the police cannot police itself. I believe that a conflict of interest exists when police are left to police themselves. In order to break down the "Blue Wall of Silence" those on the outside must be allowed to review the actions of those on the inside. I believe that the tax payers of New Jersey will benefit from the establishment of civilian review boards because it should reduce the number of financial settlements and court ordered awards that taxpayers would have to pay out because of the actions of a small number of law enforcement officers who act outside of the realm of their authority.

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