Racial profiling spurs plan to limit warnings
By Bill Dedman, The Boston Globe
If you speed or run a red light in the city of Boston, your chance of getting off with a warning may have just disappeared.
To combat racial profiling, Boston’s interim police commissioner yesterday issued guidelines that strongly encourage officers to write tickets -- not warnings -- to drivers who commit “high-priority violations": speeding at least 10 miles per hour over the limit, failing to stop for a red light or stop sign, failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk, or illegally passing a school bus.
The rule is intended to lessen the chance that police officers are injecting bias, intentionally or unintentionally, when deciding which drivers they give tickets to, said James M. Hussey, interim police commissioner. If police officers routinely issue tickets for the most serious traffic offenses, they’ll be treating drivers of all races, sexes, and ages equally.
“If some drivers who blow through a light are given a ticket and others a warning, that obviously isn’t consistent,” Hussey said.
Boston’s new rule stops short of ordering police to write only tickets. The police chief in Newton tried such an order last February, for violations at accident-prone intersections. But police officers sued, and a state court struck down Chief Jose M. Cordero’s order as an infringement on the discretion of police officers. While Newton’s case is appealed, Boston’s new rule acknowledges the discretion of officers, but makes a strong recommendation for consistent issuance of tickets -- backed up by strict supervision by commanding officers.
“Any officer who observes a high-priority violation shall, whenever practicable, take immediate enforcement action,” the rule says. “While mitigating circumstances may be considered, civil citations should generally be the enforcement action taken for high-priority violations.”
The city is involved in contentious negotiations with its employee unions on new contracts, but Hussey said he had obtained assurances from each of the police unions on the new rule. They didn’t promise to endorse it, but they did agree not to oppose it, Hussey said.
The president of the largest police union disagreed. “It’s outrageous. It’s not going to happen,” said Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Patrolmen’s Association. “It’s an insult to every working police officer in the city. And it removes the necessary mechanism of discretion.”
A Globe examination found that Boston police officers exercise broad discretion when deciding whether to issue a ticket. Fully half of the traffic citations written by Boston police during a test period in 2001 were warnings, not tickets, according to a tally last year by the Globe -- and that doesn’t count other drivers who were let go with a verbal warning. And there was great variation among officers: while some wrote only tickets during the two months studied, others wrote only warnings. As in other communities in the state, Boston police overall were more likely to ticket black and Hispanic drivers, especially men, while tending to warn whites and women for the same offenses.
A state-sponsored study of the same records is expected soon from Northeastern University researchers, putting racial profiling back in the public eye.
Hussey and his deputies have taken several steps to stay ahead of the issue. They have held several meetings with minority community leaders and civil liberties groups to assure them that the department takes the issue of racial profiling seriously.
“It appears on its face that we have some institutional and administrative issues in regard to profiling,” Hussey said in the interview. " The bottom line, whether racial profiling is a perception or a reality, is that it has the potential to harm our relationship with the community.”
A written warning is not generally recorded and has no legal or financial cost, while a ticket carries a heavy price: The minimum speeding ticket in the state is now $100, and the insurance cost of a single ticket is $350 over six years for the typical driver.
The Boston Police Department also volunteered last summer to begin collecting more racial information on every police encounter with a citizen, pedestrians as well as drivers. Also, supervisors have added fairness in ticketing to the personnel meetings in which supervisors evaluate the performance of officers.
“We want to continue with an open and honest discussion on racial profiling,” Hussey said.
The new rule on traffic enforcement requires district commanders to strictly supervise officers.
And officers starting out on their rounds must make sure they’re packing one piece of equipment that some may have neglected. “All officers,” the rule says, “shall have their motor vehicle citation books readily available.”