Thread: NJ: Latino drivers whine about too many traffic tickets

Latino rights group wants changes in police procedures
Thursday, January 29, 2009
BY CARMEN CUSIDO

LAWRENCE -- Members of a Latino civil rights advocacy group who allege discriminatory treatment of Hispanic and black drivers by two township police officers are calling for some changes in the department's policies and procedures.

Police Chief Daniel Posluszny said there have been some recent changes in policies and procedures, but "not because we're doing anything wrong."
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The department is working to dispel the perception of racial profiling, which Posluszny said neither the township nor the police do. He added that a forum hosted by the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund helped create a dialogue with the community.

"We don't believe officers are doing anything improper. They are enforcing the law fairly and equitably," Posluszny said, adding, "We want to ensure the community that we would never tolerate any type of improper profiling or malfeasance toward any member of this community and beyond."

But according to the Latino group's findings, Latino drivers receive more tickets than other drivers. The collected data goes back to April 2008.

Though Latinos represent 6 percent of township residents and whites represent 72.3 percent, one Lawrence police officer issued 33 percent of tickets to Latinos and 36 percent to white drivers around the Brunswick Pike circle area, said Richard Rivera, a law enforcement consultant who worked with the Latino group on the findings. They also presented findings that allege minorities who were stopped received more summonses on average than white and Asian drivers.

"We continue to contend that the pattern of behavior is very concerning. Whether it reaches the level of racial profiling, that would be something that could prevail in a court of law. Certainly, this is a pattern of discrimination that we wanted the Lawrence community to be aware that it existed," said Maria "Charo" Juega, co-founder of the advocacy group.

Posluszny countered that officers do not give multiple tickets for the same violation, rather there are separate violations dealing with the same thing. For instance, a driver could be issued a summons for an out-of-state driver's license if the person is now a resident of New Jersey but did not transfer their license to a new state.

The advocacy group has met with township and police officials over the past eight months, and on Tuesday held a two-hour forum at the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church that drew a crowd of 60 or more in the standing room-only audience that included township officials and police officers from Lawrence and Trenton.

Though the group's findings mentioned two officers they allege are targeting Latino and black drivers, issuing them more summonses than white and Asian drivers, Juega said her advocacy group is looking for the police department "to take ownership of this problem."

The group is reviewing the traffic stops throughout Lawrence, including analyzing 775 pages containing all the traffic stop data for 30 days the organization picked at random.

Though she's not entirely ruling out legal action, she said a court case would take years, and the group is seeking short-term relief.

"We are hoping we've generated enough discomfort in the Lawrence community to create some pressure on the part of the police department for them to stop this sort of conduct (and) pattern," Juega said.

Juega said whether the officers' motivations are intentional or not, she doesn't care. "I just want it to stop. It is discriminatory, and it is unfair. Our objective," she said, "was to wake up the Lawrence community to what's going on."

Posluszny said even though the township's Latino population is around 5 percent, many of the Trenton-area drivers coming into Lawrence are Latino, so that may account for why a higher proportion of Latino drivers are stopped in that area.

Maybe they should start obeying the rules of the road and they won't get stopped. These people are asking the police to ignore traffic violations if the driver is hispanic? That would be unconstitutional and discriminatory.

The Police departments must be sooooo sick of dealing with these people.....I am telling you they don't want to have to abide by any of our laws!