By Chris Casey
The Greeley Tribune
GREELEY, Colo. — Hoping to curb instances of police pulling over people on the basis of race, a nonprofit group has started a statewide hotline for racial profiling.
The Colorado Progressive Coalition, which has an office in Greeley, launched the hotline in April. CPC started its first racial profiling hotline in 2001 but discontinued it in 2003. The group works on civil rights, workplace and health care issues.
Angie Diaz, CPC’s northern Colorado community organizer, said the new hotline has received about 70 calls statewide. Most callers are of Latino and African-American descent.
The Colorado Progressive Coalition’s Racial Profiling and Police Discrimination Hotline is toll free at (866) 329-0908 or in Denver at (303) 654-4109.
“We always hear stories from volunteers or people in the community that it’s happening,” Diaz said. “The hard thing is we don’t have hard evidence.”
Information gathered from callers will be put in a database to track where the profiling occurred, what officer handled the stop and other details.
“Hopefully, we see a pattern kind of thing and let the police department know if there is a problem in this area,” Diaz said.
Joe Tymkowych, Greeley Police Department spokesman, said the department takes discrimination issues seriously.
“It’s actually a dirty word,” he said of racial profiling. “We train our guys when they come onto the police department that this is not something that is tolerated. They are told they can’t single anyone out for race, ethnic background, religion, economic status, age or any kind of cultural thing.”
Tymkowych said the department hasn’t had a profiling complaint for about the last 18 months.
When a complaint is made, the department performs an internal affairs investigation, including interviews of the alleged victim and witnesses, he said. “We not only look at (it) internally, but keep an eye out for anything of a criminal nature, too.”
Diaz said the toll-free hotline is staffed by bilingual speakers. If no one answers at the time of the call, it will be returned within 24 hours.
Callers are asked if they want to take action. If so, they get information about how to file a complaint with the police or where to get legal help. Hotline staffers are not lawyers.
Debi Brilla, a Greeley volunteer for CPC, said intimidation is a reason why racial profiling doesn’t get reported. The hotline is a non-threatening way for people to report cases.
Brilla said it’s also designed to help the police departments “to ensure their safety as well, and not have false complaints.”
CPC research contributed to a Colorado law passed in 2001 that required officers to present a business card when they ticketed someone for something other than they were stopped for. The law sunseted in 2004. Brilla said restoring such a law would help ensure police accountability.
Tymkowych said the group’s hotline could be useful.
“The only way we know to deal with (profiling) is if we know it happened,” he said.
Copyright 2008 The Greeley Tribune