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Wrong-way walking stops by police stir racial profiling concerns

Civil rights leaders are pressuring the Bradenton Police Department to end the practice of stopping walkers at night in one part of the city for not using sidewalks and for walking on the wrong side of the road.

Several recent cases have generated criticism and spurred dialogue about little-known pedestrian violations that are enforced primarily in a poor section of Bradenton.

Police defend the tactic, calling the stops a lawful, appropriate tool in combating drugs and interfering with criminal activity. Critics, including defense attorneys and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group, say the stops target minorities in an area where pedestrians are common.

A review of 30 recent pedestrian cases in which the person was walking on the wrong side of the road shows more than half of the walkers were black or Latino men walking between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Ward 5, a poor section of the city.

Read the Tampa Tribune report here.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).