The cop told of celebrations when I-200 passed. Racial profiling studies are useless. For one thing, we already have enough data. Instead, we need cameras in squad cars. Film doesn't lie.
Cameras are also safety tools for officers.
And SPD needs department-wide racism sensitivity training. Such training may not change years of ingrained behavior, but it sends a message far more concrete than City Council resolutions or a speech from a new chief. Particularly in the wake of the David Walker shootings, distrust of SPD among minorities in Seattle is endemic. It is not a time for symbolic gestures or meetings with a few community leaders. SPD needs to institute a systematic method for tracking racial profiling, with dire consequences for officers, white or black, who engage in it.