Despite what Nancy Mistele thinks, 9-1-1 is not a joke in our town. However, she’s not the only local politician consulting Public Enemy these days. Gov. Jim Doyle recently channeled the hip-hop group’s cries of racism in the law enforcement community by proposing that police collect racial data when making traffic stops. The initiative, which the Joint Finance Committee approved for the budget, would go into effect in 2011 and would apply to all officers in the state, in hopes of curbing the large disparity in African-American imprisonment that affects Wisconsin, and specifically, Dane County.
Racial profiling is nothing new and an odd candidate for a hot-button political issue, because at this point it’s hard to dispute. Madison learned this lesson several years ago, which is why in 2002 they began tracking racial data on their own. Unfortunately, as a recent Capital Times article notes, “blacks, in 2002, accounted for 5.8 percent of Madison’s population and 17 percent of traffic stops that didn’t result in tickets. Blacks now make up 6.4 percent of the city’s population and in 2008 accounted for 19 percent of non-citation stops.” In other words, tracking the data did nothing to balance the numbers.
So the government is attempting to implement an ineffective solution to a very real problem. This is, after all, what they do best, but it isn’t what the people of Wisconsin need. The problem is, what we need, and what this entire country needs, isn’t very realistic. Prejudices just don’t disappear once the governor signs off on a bill; in fact, they’re often not even evidence to the people who hold them. Ideally, fixing issues of police and racial profiling would require nothing more than a half-day seminar where cops are gently explained that there’s no real difference between people of different skin colors, but since that’s more unbelievable than a funny Jimmy Fallon, we need to take a page out of the police handbook and beat them at their own game: fear.
There are some people who follow the law because they were raised with strong morals, but for the majority of the public, laws are followed because we’re scared of the consequences. If I didn’t fear jail time for theft, there would be a lot more Wal-Mart brand food in my apartment. This same principle should apply to the police. It’s true that simply scaring them into being more fair when pulling people over and issuing citations won’t solve the larger problem of racial prejudice, but at least it solves the short term one of there being an unfair number of black people in our prison system. And just as we are guaranteed the right to a trial, they too should be able to defend themselves if the numbers show they appear to be acting in a racially unfair way. Arresting a person of color isn’t wrong, but arresting a person of color when you wouldn’t do the same for a white guy in an Audi is.
Interestingly, while the provision has been met with some criticism, most of it is rather frivolous. Some cite cost as a problem, and while it might be true – this is bureaucracy at work – it doesn’t need to be that way. Forcing an officer to write a couple sentences or check a box shouldn’t cost thousands of dollars. Others say that the idea is a disgrace to the men and women who protect us. No, it’s not, and anyone who’s heard of the Civil Rights movement or watched “Training Day” knows that.
If any complaint should be held up as a legitimate one, it’s that the proposal doesn’t distinguish itself enough to seem effective. Data is nice, but only if you use it effectively. Madison has been gathering it for seven years, and nothing has changed. Racial profiling is a real problem, and because we can’t huddle in a studio and sing about equality with Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, it’s probably best we start enforcing laws on the law enforcers.
Sean Kittridge?([email protected])?is a senior majoring in journalism.?
