RACIAL PROFILING.

IN SOME STATES, AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE 75 TIMES MORE LIKELY THAN WHITES TO BE STOPPED BY POLICE. IS THIS EFFECTIVE POLICING--OR JUST PLAIN RACISM?

As he lay face down on the hood of a police car, with three guns aimed at his head, Dr. Gerald Oliver feared that he'd never see his wife again, or cradle his yet-to-be born child.

"It was dark, and I wondered why the one [police] car had followed me so far," says Oliver, a South Carolina pediatrician who was stopped on a Georgia highway. "[The officer] waited to stop me where there was no light. I got out of my truck, and my knees were shaking."

When Oliver asked the officers why he had been stopped, "they said I was driving erratically [recklessly] and speeding. I knew I hadn't been speeding, and I said so."

No ticket was issued, because Oliver was not guilty of anything-- except "Driving While Black."

Still, less than 12 hours later, he found himself on the shoulder of that same Georgia highway, with police pistols once again trained on his head.

Why had cops stopped him a second time? In addition to Driving While Black, Oliver was driving an expensive car.

For African Americans, that can be an unfortunate combination. Oliver felt lucky to be "spared my life."

A Dirty Little Secret

Racial profiling--the practice of stopping drivers simply because they are black or Latino--began to make headlines a few years ago. In April 1998, two New Jersey state troopers stopped four young men driving south in a beat-up van.

The men, who had violated no laws, were on their way to North Carolina for college basketball tryouts. Three were black, one was Latino.

They hoped that their talents would lead to scholarships. But their dreams of glory were short-circuited soon after the driver of the van accidentally backed up.

The trooper and his partner panicked. They fired 11 shots, injuring three of the athletes.

A long, heated court case followed. Soon, racial profiling became the civil rights issue in America.

In the beginning, many people said that racial profiling did not exist in New Jersey--or anywhere else. Others, however, argued that it had been going on for decades. Who was right?

During the trial, New Jersey officials were forced to release more than 90,000 pages of documents. The documents revealed that racial profiling had long been common on New Jersey's highways--and that 80 percent of police searches had involved black or Latino drivers.

Other states began to look at their own law-enforcement practices. What they found was hardly reassuring--African-American women with small children stopped for no reason; Latino men accused of stealing their own cars; minority teens arrested on false drug charges.

Some state officials have defended the practice of targeting minorities, pointing out that drugs are often found during minority searches.

But journalist Gary Webb argues that such searches are unconstitutional and have "led to abuses in just about every state."

Webb has reported extensively on the Drug Enforcement Administration's Operation Pipeline, a government program begun in 1986. The program has taught state and local police forces to make highway stops on the basis of race.

Selective Targeting

The news that harsher standards have been applied to minorities came as no surprise to blacks and Latinos. They have long known that whether they are driving or walking, the color of their skin makes them more likely to be stopped by police.

Donna Carrillo, a New York City administrator, grew up in one of Brooklyn's toughest neighborhoods. She remembers how police officers always stood out in "the projects," the low-income building complex where she lived.

"We could always tell when cops came into the building," she told JS, "even when they were in plainclothes. It was so obvious because no white people lived in my neighborhood."

As Carrillo grew older, she learned that the color of her skin could make her a target for police searches.

"The summer after I graduated from college," Carrillo remembers, "I was walking the dog with my boyfriend, who had on a red baseball cap. We were in the middle of a conversation when a police car pulled up beside us. It scared me because the car pulled up so quickly."

Two officers got out, one white, one Latino. "They wanted to search my boyfriend because they were looking for a guy in a red cap.

"I looked at them like they were crazy. They tried to search him, but I kept getting in the way. 'What if I put on the red hat?' I said. And of course they didn't answer me."

What she really meant was: "What if my boyfriend's skin wasn't dark? Would you still have stopped him?"

Learning How to React

Only now are people beginning to address the dangers that minority teens face--in their homes, on the streets, and even in their schools. (A group of black teens sued the city of Denver, Colorado, a few years ago, because they had been beaten by police officers after a school dance.)

A high school in Carrillo's old neighborhood now runs an outreach program. Kids who attend learn how to react when a police officer stops them.

"Usually," says one student, "they come out right off the bat and ask you, 'Do you have any drugs?'"

Knowing how to handle such situations could mean the difference between life and death. Parents realize that such training "is part of their job bringing up a black or Hispanic kid," says David Harris, an Ohio law professor who specializes in profiling.

But it's a delicate balancing act. Joyce Randall, a Los Angeles minister, reminds her sons that police officers have a dangerous job.

"The way you dress, your attitude, it all matters," she instructs them. "Police must be very, very careful. So if you are doing what you're supposed to do chances are you're going to be on your way."

Are Cops to Blame?

At least 10 states have passed laws to track (keep statistics on) racial profiling. Other states are considering similar legislation.

But numbers can be misleading. It's not always easy to separate cases involving bias from cases based on "probable cause" (where there is a legitimate reason for a search).

No one wants to blame police officers unfairly. The majority of them do their job--a difficult one--honestly and effectively.

"I think a lot of them, unfortunately and unfairly, have been painted with a wide brush," says Reverend Reginald Jackson, a black minister in New Jersey.

Members of Colorado's state legislature also want to examine police practices before jumping to conclusions.

"We need to know," says Democratic Representative Peter Groff, "if this is the action of a few rogue [out-of-control] cops here and there, or a more widespread problem."

What do the numbers reveal so far? In some states, there is only a small disparity (difference) between the percentage of minority drivers and the percentage of drivers stopped who are minorities. But in other states, the chance of being pulled over because your skin is dark jumps to 75 percent.

Even President George W. Bush has declared racial profiling "a national problem." Recently, he told schoolchildren in Washington, D.C., that he would "look at all opportunities" to end the practice.

While state and federal officials scrutinize police departments, people may need to look at their own prejudices. If you made a snap judgment about the individuals on our cover, then you, too, may be guilty of racial profiling.