New legislation targets racial profiling

CONTACT: John Kohlstrand (614) 466-9036 or (614) 595-4936

New legislation targets racial profiling

State Representative Mike Mitchell, D-Columbus, will testify Tuesday on new legislation that would require all Ohio police to collect information during traffic stops that could help determine whether racial profiling is occurring in Ohio.  

Mitchell’s legislation, House Bill 420, would require all police departments to collect information including race and ethnicity for each traffic stop. The data would then be relayed to the attorney general’s office, which would then issue an annual report analyzing the results.

Mitchell will explain the need for the legislation Tuesday during a 2:30 p.m. meeting of the House Criminal Justice Committee in Room 121 of the Statehouse.

“As a state legislator, I often hear stories from constituents who sincerely believe they were pulled over for ‘driving while black’,” Mitchell said. “And, just as often, I talk to constituents who are just as sincerely convinced this doesn’t go on.”

“It’s time we go beyond the anecdotes and get to the facts.” Mitchell said.

Racial profiling has been alleged in several Ohio communities recently. In September, a Toledo Blade report suggested that a disproportionate number of African-Americans and Hispanics have been stopped and arrested in high-profile drug busts on the western end of the Ohio Turnpike. And in October, the American Civil Liberties Union accused the Allen County Sheriff’s Department of targeting Hispanics in traffic stops.

The trouble is, Mitchell said, most police departments don’t collect the data needed to take a close, rigorous look at the possibility of profiling.

“This legislation is about getting to the truth,” Mitchell said. “Whatever it is, we shouldn’t shy away from it.”

- 30 -

Note: The text of Mitchell’s H.B. 420 is available online at:

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=126_HB_420