The Tampa Police Department has no excuse for its deplorable practice of harassing low-income black residents under the self-serving guise of bicycle safety. This is obvious racial profiling, the equivalent of the discriminatory stop-and-frisk policies that have been criticized and abandoned in other cities. It serves no legitimate purpose, and it feeds the distrust of police that makes it difficult to persuade residents in high-crime neighborhoods to cooperate in the investigations of murders and other serious crimes. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and the new police chief, who will be appointed any day, should immediately halt this shameful practice that leaves a stain on the entire city.
An investigation by the Tampa Bay Times' Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley leaves no question that Tampa police are using bike laws to stop, question and frisk blacks suspected of criminal activity. In the past three years, the newspaper found, Tampa police have written 2,504 bike tickets — more than in St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando combined. Eight out of 10 people ticketed were black, in a city where African-Americans are just one-fourth of the population.
Police Chief Jane Castor characterized the yearslong strict enforcement as a deliberate effort to target criminals who use bicycles as their primary mode of transit. She dismissed any racial profiling in enforcement by maintaining that police were merely addressing the "unique" problems tied to heavier bike use in poorer neighborhoods. Bikes operated recklessly or driven after dark without the legally required headlights pose a safety threat on the streets. Tampa's practice, though, uses the bike laws as a tool to detain, question and harass suspects for issues often unrelated to bike use at all.
Police impounded the bike of one black resident because he couldn't produce a receipt proving he owned it. Another person was stopped and arrested on a drug charge even after the officer acknowledged he had operated the bike legally. Residents of the largely minority public housing projects say they are routinely detained. Children as young as 11 have been ticketed and reported, which can carry serious consequences for getting a car or job down the road. There are hordes of bicyclists along the waterfront on Davis Islands and Bayshore Boulevard, but only two tickets were written in those biking destinations last year — both to black men.
The tickets are so skewed toward blacks and prompted by such abusive discretion of police authority that three Hillsborough County judges have criticized the practice. No law enforcement agency in the state has ticketed so many bicyclists as the Tampa Police Department for the last three years. And the stops have hardly served a purpose; most stops that led to a ticket turned up no other illegal activity. While 2013 was one of the highest ticketed years, bike crashes and bike thefts rose the following year.
Every community deserves protection from crime and unsafe streets, yet all residents deserve respect and freedom from harassment. This practice only sours police relations in the black community and reinforces distrust of police in many neighborhoods, which hurts the department as it seeks the public's cooperation in curbing the spike in gun-related violence.
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Explore all your optionsCastor's defense of this policy is a disappointing legacy for the outgoing chief. As mayor, it's Buckhorn's responsibility to see the bigger picture with a policing tool that is disproportionately affecting minority residents. He and the new chief should replace this practice with fair enforcement of the bike laws — and community policing efforts that better encourage residents in the hardest-hit communities to be partners in solving crimes.