NEWS
Page 6 - The University Star
STUDENT HEALTH CENTER
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
PROFILING: UPD, SMPD say measures in place to prevent practice CONTINUED from page 1
The Student Health Center will be happy to see you. Experienced doctors and nurse practitioners Nationally accredited by Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc Latest technology: digital x-ray and computerized self-check in On-site pharmacy and lab that offers discounted rates Free patient parking All appointments are kept confidential Located at the corner of Sessom and Tomas Rivera Drive For an appointment call (512)245-2167 www.healthcenter.txstate.edu
Grace Honles, M.D.
Need a prescription? We carry a wide range of products including antibiotics, birth control, allergy, and over-the-counter medications.
To transfer a prescription from your family doctor or pharmacy call (512)245-3590. Be prepared to provide the following information off of your prescription label: Your name, address and phone number The name and phone number of your previous pharmacy The prescription number from the prescription label The name of the medication
Augie Capelo, R.PH
We accept Cash, Checks, American Express, Visa, & Mastercard. Accepting Bobcat Bucks begining Fall 2005.
Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc.
for no apparent reason other than it being late at night. “I was pulled over on Aquarena and was searched for about an hour. Then five minutes after I drove off, I was pulled over again,” Ollivierre said. Texas State University Police Department Officer Otto Glenewinkel, a member of the Community Awareness and Resource Team, said racial profiling shouldn’t happen at all but is not a major problem at Texas State. “(UPD’s) numbers are lower than the national demographic,” Glenewinkel said. Additionally, the report showed data collected from the San Marcos Police Department. Blacks are 20 percent less likely than Caucasians to be searched by SMPD following a stop, while Hispanics are 50 percent more likely than Caucasians to be searched. Attorney for Students Shannon Fitzpatrick said students in San Marcos face a different kind of profiling. “I think here it’s more student profiling than racial profiling,” Fitzpatrick said. “The cops see students and automatically think they’re up to no good.” Tobian Sledge, management senior, said he felt targeted by local police agencies after being pulled over by SMPD. “I was pulled over because supposedly my headlight was out, but when I turned my lights on, they were both on, so the officer let me go,” Sledge said. SMPD Chief Howard Williams said neither student nor racial profiling is a problem at the department. He said officers undergo extensive training in the law and take racial and cultural sensitivity classes to keep them informed. In addition, all SMPD squad cars are outfitted with video cameras, and sergeants regularly view samples of the tapes to audit them for racial profiling. Williams acknowledged that Hispanics were searched at a higher rate than Caucasians but said the number was insignificant when examining the number of searches instead of the percentages: Out of 6,700 traffic stops in 2004, 169 whites and 139
Hispanics were searched. If one less Hispanic was searched every two weeks, the percentages would be the same, he said. “We’re not talking about a huge difference,” Williams said. Williams said racial profiling is “difficult to define” and a “tough question.” “We don’t search people at random,” he said. “We search people with probable cause, when we think something is afoot.” The Hays County Sheriff’s Department did not report search statistics following a stop broken down by race, although as of September 2001, under Senate Bill 1074, all public law enforcement agencies are required by the state to collect the data. Fitzpatrick said there are no penalties for agencies not complying with SB 1074, and it is extremely difficult to enforce. Regis Dearza, chief deputy for the Hays County Sheriff’s Department, said he could not comment on the report because he was not familiar with it but said the department employs measures to prevent racial profiling. “We have mandated training along with policies and procedures we follow, and we comply very strictly with mandates regarding racial profiling,” Dearza said. Fitzpatrick said Austin has a bigger problem with racial profiling than San Marcos. “Where they’re hitting the hardest is Austin; it’s kind of frightening at that level,” Fitzpatrick said. The manual was put together after an article in The Dallas Morning News in 2004 posed the question: Why does Texas A&M University continue to lose black recruits to other universities? The article cited a statewide study published by Texas civil rights groups that found that police departments in the Bryan-College Station area stopped and searched blacks and Hispanics at higher rates than whites. In 2003, students at Sam Houston State University were facing the same problem. During the fall of 2003, the NAACP chapter on campus hosted a town hall meeting for students. Texas President of the NAACP Conference Garry Bledsoe discussed the issue of racial profiling on campus. Stu-
dents and leaders met with the Huntsville chief of police and discussed tactics used by police officers when interacting with students. The meeting resulted in less harassment of black and Hispanic students by their local police, according to the NAACP and TMLS manual. “Racial injustice is more and more of a problem, but we need to have more students like those at Sam Houston to make sure that this is not a problem,” Bledsoe said. Richard DeLeon, president of the San Marcos chapter of LULAC, said he had not yet familiarized himself with the manual but is aware of the problem of racial profiling. “Right now, we’re working on getting together with local police officers and plan a Saturday when we can walk through minority neighborhoods and pass out brochures so that citizens can know what their rights are,” DeLeon said. Along with search statistics, the manual provides students and community leaders with preventative measures to address the problem, including holding informative workshops, approaching campus administrators with long-term plans to fight racial profiling, working with local police departments and distributing incident cards to students and community leaders. Incident cards are used to record information about traffic stops in which students are involved. The cards ask for the officer’s name and badge number as well as time and place of the stop. This allows the distributing the groups to track who is being pulled over and monitor the accuracy of department data collection. “With the suggestions in this manual, students who start returning to their campuses in the fall will have so many great organizing activities to look forward to and so many opportunities to work with their campus and community leadership to create change,” said Ana Yañez-Correa, legislative liaison for Texas LULAC. The manual and additional information regarding racial profiling is available at www.crim inaljusticecoalition.org.
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AMENITIES � Private bedrooms & bathrooms
� 24-hour fitness center
� Financial Aid friendly
� TXTram stop on site
� Fully furnished units
� ALL-INCLUSIVE LIVING
� Individual leases
- Extended cable television
� 24-hour computer lab
- High-speed internet access
� Resort-style pool
- All utilities paid up to a monthly cap: electricity, water and trash
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512.245.1440
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