By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News
Amid allegations that San Jose police unfairly stop and question blacks and Latinos downtown, Police Chief Rob Davis on Thursday for the first time addressed claims of racial profiling brought by the local NAACP branch.
``You have hundreds of people saying they don’t feel welcome downtown because of the police,’' said Rick Callender, head of the San Jose/Silicon Valley branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, referring to an anonymous survey in which more than a third of the 706 respondents said they had been stopped by police.
Callender said many blacks and Latinos often are stopped for such infractions as playing loud music, jaywalking or busted taillights. ``How do we go from an infraction to a felony stop?’'
Davis, however, said there was no hard evidence to support the allegations in the survey because none of the respondents had filed official complaints with the department -- leaving police with no specifics to investigate. But he added, ``We are willing to roll up our sleeves and figure out what’s going on.
``If there are perceptions, concerns, realities, whatever they might be,’' he said, ``we need to address them.’'
Still, Davis did not agree to NAACP’s request to enter mediation monitored by the Department of Justice on addressing the issue of racial profiling.
``We don’t believe we need to be there yet,’' he said.
Davis’ meeting with the NAACP at its Sixth Street headquarters comes amid growing tensions between police and the NAACP over the police response to an Oct. 22 shooting at a downtown parking lot near the former hip-hop Ambassador’s Lounge that left three people injured.
The club owner and NAACP contend police selectively stopped Latinos and blacks for questioning and searches without cause. Police have denied the allegations. But the shooting spurred the San Jose City Council to pass a temporary emergency ordinance in November that gave police the authority to immediately suspend or revoke bar or nightclub permits based on safety concerns.
The NAACP has been seeking to get the state and federal justice departments to examine racial profiling claims in downtown San Jose. And the Santa Clara County civil grand jury is investigating the allegations.
San Jose’s department was one of the first in the country to voluntarily track racial data in traffic stops.
In an occasionally spirited debate attended by about 25 people, Davis fielded questions ranging from whether officers had been directed to stop ``urban looking youth’’ to whether statistics on the number of arrests by race were available.
Davis said officers respond to calls regardless of race. He defended his department, noting its diversity and the sensitivity and cultural awareness training that officers are required to undergo. ``The overwhelming majority of our officers do get it,’' he said. ``That doesn’t mean we have to be vigilant of those who don’t get it.’'
Statistics showed 15,762 arrests in San Jose from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2005. Of those arrested, 1,484 were black, 8,363 were Latino and 3,412 were white. But Davis cautioned against reading too much into those numbers because fewer than 10 percent of those arrests were the result of car stops.
In downtown for that same period, there were 1,714 arrests. Of those arrested, 336 were black, 770 were Latino and 413 were white.
Delorme McKee-Stovall, 56, of San Jose spoke out about the occasions police have stopped her husband while both are in their Mercedes. ``It feels very oppressive,’' she said. ``It’s hard when you’re a parent and you have to explain that over and over again to your child.’'
San Jose Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/)