Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Have you ever been confronted or called to account by a police officer because of your racial or ethnic identity?

If so, a coalition of 11 sociopolitical advocacy groups wants to hear from you.

The reason? Police departments keep saying that racial profiling cannot be much of a problem because they get few complaints. So the coalition wants to test that contention.

The coalition includes the Urban League of Rhode Island, where the solicitation was announced Monday, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and the International Institute of RI, among others. They pronounced May as Racial Profiling Awareness Month and announced a month-long campaign to gather personal stories of profiling.

Tish DiPrete, director of advocacy and public policy at the Urban League, said the coalition may use the anecdotes that it receives in support of proposed legislation to stiffen the anti-racial-profiling statute. Some respondents may be asked to testify in person at a State House hearing or to tell their story at a news conference, she said.

It is undecided, she said, whether the results of the campaign will be announced or disseminated to whichever law enforcement agency whose officer offended a respondent.

Anyone who would like to relate a bad experience may complete an online survey or call a toll-free hotline: in English, 1-877-231-7171, or, in Spanish, 1-877-527-3330.

Comments

EMT said:

Great idea. It's completely impossible for anonymous people to make up incidents that didn't happen.

Do we really want unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence forming the basis for public policy?

Link | May 4, 2009 5:24 PM
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Rick G said:

If you've got too much tint in your windows, going too fast, or numerous other violations are you going to be able to have them dismissed for racial profiling?

Link | May 4, 2009 7:26 PM
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MB said:

Brilliant. Really reliable information will be retrieved via a one-sided, account of an incident. I guess these organizations never heard the saying, "one side says one thing, the other says another. somewhere in the middle is the truth." This should be a really worthwhile venture.... Give me a break!

Link | May 4, 2009 9:12 PM
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