POLICE BEGIN RACIAL PROFILING

Since late last week some Cape Girardeau police officers have kept track of the race of every driver they stop.

It is all part of the department's effort to gear up for new reporting requirements.

Under a Missouri law that takes effect Monday, law enforcement officers must report on the race of every driver they stop.

Sgt. Carl Kinnison said all of the Cape Girardeau Police Department's traffic officers and several others have filled out a traffic-stop form. "It is a relatively easy report to complete," Kinnison said.

The form has 12 questions with multiple-choice answers. The officer simply checks the answers that apply to any particular traffic stop.

The questions include the type of traffic violation; whether a ticket was issued or an arrest made; the race, age and gender of the driver; whether the driver or vehicle were searched; the duration of the search and whether contraband was found. The form also asks officers to record if the traffic stop occurred on an interstate, U.S. or state highway; city street; county road or other location. The form approved by the attorney general's office asks officers to record the driver's race only on the basis of visual observation.

Law enforcement agencies, including the Missouri Highway Patrol, must file an annual report with the Missouri attorney general's office by March 1. The attorney general then must submit a report to the governor and the Legislature.

Attorney General Jay Nixon plans to appoint a statewide advisory board of community leaders and law enforcement representatives to monitor the new rules and analyze the data.

The attorney general's office has put together a one-page, fill-in-the-blanks annual report form that departments can use.

Mary Still, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the paperwork can't be avoided. But she said Nixon's office has tried to keep the paperwork to a minimum.

"Our effort is to put together a system of providing information without being overly burdensome to law enforcement," she said Thursday.

Many police agencies are looking to keep track of the traffic-stop information on computers, which will make it easier for them to compile the annual statistics that must be submitted to the state. Law enforcement agencies eventually hope to be able to file their annual reports over the Internet.

Sheldon Lineback, executive director of the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, said some departments are spending $15,000 on computer software to handle the traffic-stop reporting. Other departments are developing their own software.

At the Cape Girardeau Police Department, Kinnison is writing a computer program to tabulate all the data.

The local police department handles 12,000 or more traffic stops a year, Kinnison said. Without a computer program it would take many hours to tabulate all the information by hand, he said.

Kinnison said officers are being asked to fill out traffic-stop reports on the scene rather than back at the station.

The report form won't take long to complete. "It will certainly take less than two minutes to fill it out," he said.

Officers must fill out the form for all traffic stops, even those in which no tickets are issued.

TRAFFIC-STOP FORM

1. Traffic violation resulting in a stop: Moving violation, equipment or license.

2. Result of traffic stop: Citation, warning, or arrest

3. Driver's race: White, African-American, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, other.

4. Driver's age.

5. Driver's gender.

6. Location of traffic stop.

7. Was a vehicle search initiated?

If yes, what was the probable cause/authority for the search: Consent, odor of drugs/alcohol, plain view contraband, inventory, incident to arrest, drug dog alert, reasonable suspicion -- weapon, other.

8. What was searched: driver or property?

9. Duration of search.

10. Was contraband discovered?

Type of contraband: Illegal drugs/drug paraphernalia, stolen property, weapons, currency, other.

11. Was driver arrested?

12. If an arrest was made, what was the alleged crime?

Source: Cape Girardeau Police Department