'Driving while gay'? Proposal would have Missouri cops try to gather that info, too
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/kevin-mcdermott/driving-while-gay-proposal-would-have-missouri-cops-try-to/article_87973f23-f6bd-577a-a29d-915543b25ee8.html (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/kevin-mcdermott/driving-while-gay-proposal-would-have-missouri-cops-try-to/article_87973f23-f6bd-577a-a29d-915543b25ee8.html)
For the past 15 years, police officers in Missouri have been required to record the ethnicity of drivers they stop on the roads, so the information can be examined for evidence of racial profiling.
Reams of data now indicate that "driving while black" is a real offense in the eyes of some Missouri officers and departments.
But "driving while gay"?
New state legislation unveiled Tuesday would expand the current process of data collection that police officers in Missouri are required to follow during traffic stops to include not just race, but also "perceived" sexual orientation, as well as religion, "disability" and "English language proficiency."
The new legislation, dubbed the Fair and Impartial Policing Act, was unveiled Tuesday by two state legislators and the ACLU of Missouri.
"This is not an attack on law enforcement," state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said at a St. Louis news conference with co-sponsor Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, and others announcing the bill. "We're trying to weed out the bad cops."
The legislation seeks to require officers to gather the demographic data for pedestrian stops as well as traffic stops. Its backers acted in part as a result of the unrest in Ferguson that followed a pedestrian stop.
It would also put what supporters call "teeth" into the data-collection process, with real-world consequences for police departments that display a pattern of singling out minorities in their interactions with the public.
But perhaps the most surprising aspect of the proposed new process is how much the police officer would be expected to discern about the driver or pedestrian, beyond readily apparent factors like race and gender.
Under current statute, they must record "the age, gender and race or minority group of the individual stopped."
Under the proposed new law, which would replace that statute, the officer would be required to record "the perceived race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, English language proficiency or national origin of the individual stopped."
"There exists police bias across many categories," said ACLU-Missouri Executive Director Jeffrey Mittman, "and it's important to address them all."
The current data-collection system in Missouri, as in other states, has shown a persistent pattern in which police stop minority drivers at higher rates than they stop white drivers.
In 2014 in Missouri, according to the state's annual data, black drivers were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over than whites. Blacks and Hispanics also were more likely to be searched as a result of those stops — even though white drivers were more likely to be in possession of drugs, weapons or other illegal contraband.
The proposed legislation would impose a range of consequences for police departments that show a pattern of racial profiling, including added officer training requirements, state funding reductions and even department de-certification.
The Legislature convenes its 2016 session Wednesday.
Sometimes Democrats and the ACLU are so short-sighted. This is a really dumb idea.