Palo Alto police chief denies racial profiling

Palo Alto police chief denies racial profiling

Palo Alto police chief denies racial profiling

Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 1, 2008

(10-31) 16:27 PDT PALO ALTO -- A furor over racial profiling in Palo Alto eased Friday as the city's police chief apologized for a directive that appeared to order officers to stop African Americans on the streets in an effort to solve a rash of robberies.

Chief Lynne Johnson said the order had been misunderstood and was not an attempt to conduct racial profiling. She said she would try to meet in coming days with community leaders, some of whom indicated that they were far from mollified by the chief's backtracking.

Johnson set off a firestorm during a community meeting Thursday night with about 40 residents to discuss what police were doing to solve 16 street robberies that have happened since mid-June. The suspects in most of the robberies were black.

The chief, who is white, said she had told her officers that if they are in an area where robberies have occurred, "and they see an African American, you know, in a congenial way we want them to find out who they are."

She also told them to be on the lookout for black people with do-rags, because one of the robbers wore one.

By Friday, word of the chief's remarks had riled the city's mayor and city manager, and they promised to take action to see that African Americans' rights were not violated. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, issued a statement condemning the remarks, saying the chief had "demonstrated a profound lack of judgment and leadership."

"The chief's remarks are unacceptable, unconstitutional and un-American," Mayor Larry Klein said Friday morning.

He and others angered by the comments said later that they were grateful for the chief's apology, but they said they believe the wounds would take some work to heal.

"This whole thing just exposed something we've been saying has been happening for years, and her comments were hurtful and frightening," said Jeff Moore, president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley branch of the NAACP. "Racial profiling happens to young blacks and Latinos all day long, all over Northern California, and all we're asking is for fair treatment and some respect."

Maybe the flap over Johnson's comments can lead to a dialogue on the issue, he said. In the meantime, he hopes to meet with Johnson soon to discuss profiling.

Johnson said she would be happy to meet with Moore, and plans to speak with parishioners of the Jerusalem Baptist Church in Palo Alto on Sunday to begin clarifying her position to the community.

"I am very apologetic and regretful if I offended anybody by my comments," she said. "If anybody knows me, they know my whole career I have been a leader in fighting racial profiling.

"Racial profiling is unconstitutional, immoral and violates our department policy."

Johnson said officers should stop people on the street only if they have probable cause to believe that questioning them can help solve a crime. That cause has to include more than the person's race, sex or other characteristics, she said.

City Manager James Keene said after meeting with Johnson and several of her commanders that he was convinced the chief "made some misstatements that are not indicative of her values as a police chief and the practices in the department."

"The next steps for her are to work at repairing the damage done by the misstatements," Keene said. "She needs to focus on reclaiming the confidence of the community."

Keene added: "If there were any evidence of racial profiling, we would certainly pursue disciplinary action up to and including termination. But at this point, we've had no profiling complaints."

According to the U.S. Census, 76 percent of Palo Alto's 59,000 residents are white and 2 percent are black. Asians, at 17 percent, constitute the biggest nonwhite ethnic population in the city.

Johnson, 58, has spent her entire 33-year police career in Palo Alto. She was promoted to chief in 2003.

Among the first actions she took as chief was starting an outreach effort to allay complaints that minorities were stopped for questioning more often than white people and that police were unfairly collecting racial data.
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seems like one crooked n racist police chief to me, why the police always are given a second chance when they screw up, i have no idea. but get busted once for mj and u r fucked for life!