GOVERNOR TO SIGN ANTI-RACIAL PROFILING BILL
Governor's Signature Will Make Missouri Fifth State to Pass Law Requiring Data Collection on Racial Profiling
St. Louis, June 2, 2000: At a signing ceremony Monday in St. Louis, Governor Mel Carnahan will sign a bill outlawing racial profiling and requiring all local and state law enforcement agencies to keep statistics on every traffic stop made on Missouri's roads. The ceremony will take place at 9:00 AM in the Summit Lounge of UMSL's J.C. Penny Building.
Supporters of the law say its passage is an important step toward ending the practice commonly known as racial profiling or driving while black. A 1999 report issued by the ACLU entitled Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation's Highways reviewed a number of studies around the country showing that non-white drivers are much more likely to be stopped and/or searched by the police. The study concluded that many of these stops were a result of racial biases held by law enforcement officers.
The bill being signed by the Governor, SB 1053 introduced by Senator Wayne Goode, aims to collect data that will aid in determining to what extent racial profiling is taking place in Missouri. In January of this year, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri approached Representative Russell Gunn of St. Louis to introduce legislation similar to that which will be signed into law on Monday. Both Rep. Gunn and Senator Goode introduced legislation in early March, and it was Goode's bill that moved through both the Senate and House.
Matt LeMieux, Executive Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, calls the bill one of the most comprehensive in the country. Approximately 15 items of information are to be gathered about each stop, much of which is already gathered as part of most routine traffic stops. The information will allow for a focused study on the impact of pretext stop tactics on minority communities.
'Police departments across the state should welcome this law,' said LeMieux. 'Studies conducted using the data gathered by this law will help police departments spot whether there is a problem with how they are conducting traffic stops and breed trust between police and minority communities who feel they are being treated unfairly on Missouri's roads.'