William Ellis, Claremont’s Interim Chief of Police, met with students Wednesday to discuss racial profiling and address for the first time some of the most outspoken critics of the city’s government and police force.

Since the fatal shooting of Irvin Landrum by two Claremont police officers in January of 1999, the department and city hall have been the target of weekly protests and calls for an independent investigation into the circumstances of Landrum’s death.

Student involvement in the protest gained momentum during the fall, but has declined sharply lately due to disputes within student and community organizing committees.

After an introduction from Dean of Students Ann Quinley, Ellis greeted the 20 students present with straight talk, "If you ask me whether police officers profile, the answer is ‘Yes, absolutely!’" Ellis referred to profiling as the legitemate job of criminal analysts who investigate and predict crime trends.

"By the book police work does not involve stopping people based on their race – that kind of racial profiling shouldn’t happen," he said.

City Manager Glen Southard had planned to install Thomas Scheidecker as the new chief on Valentine’s Day this year but the City Council rescinded the offer after local newspapers reported his involvement in a police spying scandal in the early 1980’s. Ellis, known for helping troubled departments, was hired as Interim Chief for the next five months or until a suitable candidate for the permanent position is found.

Ellis began by discussing his over thirty years in law enforcement, most in Long Beach, with short terms as an interim chief in West Covina and Manhattan Beach.

Soon he presented several posters to the predominantly African-American audience that showed demographic data on the population, number of tickets and arrests in Claremont. For instance, Claremont’s population is 63 percent White, but Whites only receive 47 percent of the traffic citations – a difference he attributes to the higher number of Blacks and Latinos from adjacent cities like Pomona who get stopped.

Another chart showed 11 percent of traffic citations in Claremont are issued to Black motorists, compared to the 6 percent of Claremonters who are African American.

Students were concerned that the graphs misrepresented racial profiling, as the practice is often simple harassment without charges or citations issued.

Ellis said a new eight month study, beginning on May 1, will record the race of everyone who is stopped by the police whether or not they receive a ticket, and Ellis hopes that his new effort to disclose police behavior will lay to rest the accusations of racism among police and city officials.

"[Nonenforcement stops] are what we’re going to start tracking on the first of May," he said.

Ellis said the time period was changed from the original six months due to student concerns that their absence would affect the study.

"If racial profiling is a concern in our community, then we’ll do something about it and we will bring the numbers out into the public so people can look at it," said Ellis.

Several students questioned the effectiveness of the proposed study. They were concerned that officers will act differently since they know that they are being watched, thereby rendering the study ineffective. The study was also criticized because it relies solely on the officers themselves to accurately report on all the stops they make by submitting index cards with the race, age and gender of all those they confront.

"Why would officers turn themselves in for stopping more Blacks than Whites," one student wondered.

In response to this criticism, Ellis answered, "But I’ll know if the officers are doing that. From what I can see, things are operating fine. I tell them, ‘Go do your jobs in a professional way.’ If you’re doing the right thing, you have nothing to worry about."

Others students thought the system of officers reporting all stops, even nonenforcement encounters, should be standard procedure. Ellis said the paperwork would turn police officers into "secretaries."

"If they are not doing anything that’s inappropriate, we don’t want to burden them with anything else," he said "It’s not often that we can make everyone happy."

One student, Clarence Mitchell ‘03, asked whether officers were required to undergo training to become sensitive to racial issues, and Ellis listed off some requirements at the state and local level, as well as a recently allocated $25,000 by the Claremont Committee on Human Relations for such training of city officials.

"Diversity issues are part of the training," said Ellis.

Ellis mentioned other steps he had taken in an effort to regain some of the public support the department has lost over the past year. All officers now carry digital audio recorders, he said, adding that this summer a new fleet of police cruisers will debut, complete with video cameras.