Almost 90 percent of the motorists stopped and issued warnings by Ohio troopers this year were white, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

        The numbers are the first glimpse at a new racial profiling information project under way by the patrol.

        Troopers are recording the races of all drivers given official warnings for a traffic violation. They are continuing to record the races of drivers given citations.

        Unlike programs being conducted in some cities, the patrol does not record the race of drivers who are let go without tickets or written warnings.

THE NUMBERS

Warnings issued January through March:    • White: 88 percent.    • Black: 9 percent.    • Hispanic: 2 percent.    • Asian: 1 percent.    • Native American: Less than 1 percent.

        The first-quarter data brought a mixed reaction from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

        “As far as it goes, it's a good first step,” said legal director Raymond Vasvari. “But there's significant data missing here.”

        It's unclear, he said, how many drivers are not being counted.

        From January through March, troopers wrote warnings to 75,335 drivers — 88 percent of them white, 9 percent black, 2 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian and less than 1 percent American Indian.

        Because the trooper's perception of the person's race is what's important, troopers do not ask the driver's race; they record what they think is correct.

        The racial breakdown of Ohio's 11.35 million population is 85 percent white, 11.5 percent black, 1.9 percent Hispanic, 1.2 percent Asian, 1.4 percent mixed race and 0.2 percent American Indian, according to 2000 Census data.

        The patrol also released its traffic citation data for all of 2000. It shows that of 721,845 drivers ticketed last year, 89 percent were white, 8 percent black, and 1 percent each were Asian, Hispanic and unknown. Native Americans made up less than 1 percent.

        The highway patrol's project is much less extensive than what Cincinnati officers will start next month. They will record the race, age and sex of every driver and passenger stopped, whether the driver is given a ticket, warning, or simply let go. Cincinnati officers also will track the nature of the traffic stop, any arrests made, if the vehicle was searched and why.

        Lt. Gary Lewis, spokesman for the highway patrol, defended the agency's program and results by saying only a fraction of drivers are omitted. He said the patrol did not want to count every person in contact with a trooper because that would include those who call for assistance.

        “We've collected the information where enforcement has been or could have been initiated,” he said.

        It is also difficult to determine what population to compare the drivers' race data to, Lt. Lewis said. Counting drivers on highways driven by people from all over the country is different, he said, than tracking those who might drive on a city's streets.

        In Cincinnati, data collection starts May 7. The city is being sued by the ACLU and Cincinnati Black United Front, which allege that officers have discriminated for years against black citizens in traffic stops and other ways.

        Lawyers on both sides of the Cincinnati suit are due back in federal court Wednesday to report on what aspects, if any, on which they think they might be able to negotiate.
       

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