Over the past two years, Andre Bryan CMC ’02 has been pulled over a total of fifteen times. He’s received four tickets and been convicted of only one traffic violation. The stops follow a pattern; in each instance, a police officer pulls him over for anything from accelerating too quickly to leaving the parking registration dangling from his rearview mirror to hugging the left hand side of the lane. Every officer quickly moved from the minor violation to two questions that have become commonplace in Bryan’s life: "Have you been drinking? Do you have any warrants?"

Bryan, an African American who drives a low-riding Mustang, feels that he is the victim of racial profiling, a practice in which police officers pull over people who they feel are most likely to be guilty of a crime. Pulling Bryan over for various reasons is an excuse to check him for warrants. Interim Police Chief William Ellis explained that checking for warrants at traffic stops "is very common." However, no white students who had been asked about outstanding warrants during traffic stops could be found by The Student Life, supporting the view that the questions, and the stops, are racially motivated.

For the first time, it appears that the city is listening to stories like Bryan’s. The Community Dialog Planning Committee has set up several open meetings for people to discuss personal negative experiences with the Claremont Police Department (CPD) as part of a long term strategy of fostering communication between the community and CPD.

This is part of a process undertaken by Interim Police Chief William Ellis to determine whether or not CPD really does engage in racial profiling.

"I know for sure that it does," said Interim Dean of the Office of Black Student Affairs Leeshawn Moore. Stories of racial profiling often come to her office first; they come not only from students, but also from faculty and staff. Her office is in the process of collecting those accounts.

Moore encourages students who have had negative experiences to attend the public meetings.

The first open forum was on Monday, April 3. Despite being held on campus at the Pomona College Faculty House, few students attended. Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch hopes that this Saturday’s meeting, which will be held at Taylor Hall will be more heavily attended by students.

He, like Moore, expressed the hope that students who have had negative experiences would attend. "It would be really, really good for them to show up," said Poch.

In addition to the open forums, Ellis also plans to institute a program that will force officers to record the race of everyone they pull over. Currently, they are only required to record the ethnicity of those to whom they give tickets. Victims of racial profiling do not generally receive tickets, as in Bryan’s case, so they don’t show up in these statistics.

The tracking program will being on May 1, shortly before students leave, and end six months later, shortly after students return. The problem with this, according to Poch, is that "among nonwhite folks in Claremont, a good chunk of them are college students." As a result, many of the people who are most likely to be the victims of racial profiling will not be present during this evaluative period.

The pilot program will be "particularly difficult in a town with a high student population," said ACLU of Southern California Associate Director Elizabeth Schroeder. "It would need to be done with the students present."

In response to the criticisms of the community, Ellis said that he may change the time frame of the pilot program.

Schoeder, who has observed many such programs, said, "The statistics will only be meaningful if they collected long term. Ideally, the program would be permanent." In San Jose "it appears that collecting data made officers think about who they were stopping and why," she said.

The tracking program is part of a nine-point plan put forth by City Manager Glenn Southard and Ellis, which focuses on community outreach and interaction.

Part of the program is the establishment of a Public Safety Advisory Committee. The committee would exist primarily to review CPD performance and recommend changes. A representative from the Deans of Student Life at the Colleges would sit on the committee, as would a representative from the Five College Student Senate.

The city is also assigning a police liaison to the Deans of Student Life and the Five College Senate. Ellis has also said that he will be sure to include minority resource centers in the program.

Ellis also plans to put CPD officers through diversity and sensitivity training.

Both Moore and Schroeder felt that the steps the city is taking are good ones, especially those towards community involvement. However, said Schroeder, "unless you have a permanent civilian complaint review board with teeth, it’s unlikely things will change."

Despite the city’s steps, Bryan presently finds himself in a bad position. "Now I’m paranoid. I don’t feel safe in my neighborhood. How am I supposed to feel? Especially with Irvin Landrum getting shot. They let those two idiots [who shot him] out on the street [on active duty]? How am I supposed to feel? They always try to get you on something."