By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ELECTION GUIDE

Election Guide 2003 Cincinnati.com provides an early look at the Nov. 4 vote with help on getting you registered, lists of area candidates and the latest campaign news. And there's more to come, including candidate profiles - as we get closer to Election Day.

WHERE THEY STAND

The Enquirer asked all 26 candidates for Cincinnati City Council: "Should Cincinnati police officers continue to be required to fill out racial profiling contact cards?" Yes Samuel T. Britton (D), Laketa Cole (D), John Cranley (D), David C. Crowley (D), Larry J. Frazier (I), Brain Crum Garry (I), Leslie Ghiz (R), Glenn O. Givens Sr. (I), Marilyn Hyland (I), Damon Lynch III (I), Sam Malone (R), David Pepper (D), Alicia Reece (D), Christopher Smitherman (C), Nick Spencer (C), Barbara W. Trauth (R), Eric Wilson (I). No John Connelly (R), Pat DeWine (R), Tom Jones (R), Chris Monzel (R), Pete Witte (R). Don't know Howard H. Bond (D), Terry Deters (R), John Schlagetter (C), Jim Tarbell (C).

When Cincinnati voters go to the polls Tuesday, they still won't have access to statistics on whether Cincinnati police make traffic stops based on drivers' race.

With a city report on traffic stops under a federal court's gag order until after the election, the next City Council will likely have to decide whether police have been guilty of racial profiling and, if so, what to do about it. Council will decide whether officers should continue to fill out the cards.

Officers say the cards - which contain demographic information about every suspect officers come into contact with, along with circumstances and location - can take as long as 11 minutes to fill out.

Some candidates say those 11 minutes could be better spent fighting crime.

"It's eating up about 16,000 (officer) hours to do it. One of the biggest complaints I hear is we need more police on the streets," said Republican Pete Witte. "I want police officers patrolling streets, not filling out cards."

But most candidates say the data-gathering should continue.

Councilman John Cranley, a Democrat, wrote the anti-profiling law in 2001, shortly before the shooting of an African-American man by a white officer sparked four days of rioting. It passed, 8-1.

The law required police to "compile data that can be used to assure that such practices play no part in the City's law enforcement activities."

If the city gets such assurances, Democrat Sam Britton said, the data should be collected "for a limited time."

Others say City Council should withhold judgment until they see the report. Among them is Charterite John Schlagetter, who has been pestering city officials to release the data since February 2002.

He wants to wait for the results of the analysis, conducted by the University of Cincinnati. But given the difficulty in analyzing the existing data, he said, the city should adopt a policy of requiring less, but more targeted, information.

Councilman Pat DeWine, a Republican who chairs the Law & Public Safety Committee, has fought to get the racial profiling data released. He said the fact that plaintiffs in the racial profiling case want to keep the report under wraps makes him even more skeptical about the data.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott refused a request to move up her decision on whether to reverse the gag order. She said she could not see how the report "has any more relevance to Election Day than any other document that is of interest to the public."

Democrat Laketa Cole said the information only has value if it's publicly discussed.

"Yes, the police officers should have to fill out profiling cards - but only if the lawyers and judges stop their charades and agree to release the information to the public," she said. "If the city and citizens can't see the results, then what good is collecting the information?"

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com