Denver Post

Profiling the profilers
By Reggie Rivers

Friday, August 29, 2003 - Sometimes life produces ironies that are so pointed it's hard to believe they occurred naturally. It's almost as if someone has written a script, and the actors deliver their lines with straight faces not even realizing just how curious they sound.

Bob Freund, vice president of the Denver Police Protective Association, recently said that Denver police officers are issuing 835 fewer traffic tickets each month because a new computer system that tracks complaints against officers has made them nervous.

"It's to the point that they are hesitant to do their jobs," Freund told The Denver Post this week.

The numbers back up his claim. Ticket revenue is projected to drop nearly 10 percent, from $9.4 million in 2002 to $8.5 million this year.

Chief Gerry Whitman introduced the "initial inquiry" system to address the national problem of racial profiling and to try to improve the relationship between the police department and the community. The system brings uniformity to the tracking of officer complaints in order to detect patterns of behavior.

"You basically have an unhappy police department that is looking over their shoulder constantly," Freund said.

That's what I find so ironic. Denver cops are basically complaining about being profiled. In their opinion, this system is putting undue scrutiny on their actions, and they feel as if they have targets on their backs. If they make the slightest mistake, Internal Affairs will swoop down on them.

Black and Hispanic drivers have been complaining for years that they get singled out by cops, especially when they're in certain neighborhoods or driving certain types of cars.

If you're not part of a group that gets profiled, you probably have a hard time understanding what the big deal is. You might say, "Profiling, schmofiling. If you don't want to get a ticket, don't break the law."

But when you're in the target group, you feel the weight of these practices - and it puts you on edge. For example, these days many white males feel that they're being profiled, that they're less likely to get jobs, more likely to be rejected when they apply to colleges and more likely to be blamed for society's ills.

This feeling is what many minorities have complained about for years.

I don't take any joy in the fact that police officers are afraid to do their jobs. As much as I dislike traffic tickets, I appreciate the role they play in ensuring public safety. However, I think it's instructive for officers to think about the way they feel about this tracking system, Internal Affairs, the media and other organizations that are constantly critical of them and just waiting for them to make the slightest mistake.

Because that's exactly the way many blacks and Hispanics feel about the police department.

Among the complaints the police union has about the initial inquiry system is that it doesn't apply to everyone in the department. The actions of patrol officers are tracked much more closely than the actions of command officers and other leaders.

Again, this echoes the charges of some minorities: The average Joe in the projects will be tracked, monitored, stopped and frisked far more frequently than someone in a better neighborhood. And that a black or Hispanic driver is more likely to get stopped and issued a ticket than the average white driver.

I commend Chief Whitman for instituting the initial inquiry system, because the department needed a uniform method for examining officer behavior.

I'm sure adjustments will need to be made in the future, but hopefully, one of the long-term benefits of this system is that it will help officers understand what it feels like to be profiled. No one likes it, and it only breeds distrust between the profiled and the profilers.

Former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers is the host of "Drawing the Line" Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on KBDI Channel 12. He writes Fridays on the op-ed page.