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Home My WebLink About04-11-2000 Articles Iowa City Press-Citizen, OPINION, 4/5/00 Our view Traffic data worthwhile for analysis We've now got ahnost Maybe. Maybe not. "It is going lo be very a ye~'s wo~%h of star,tics PreliminmT statistics in,resting to see if ~y on Iowa City tr~fic stops, indicate mino~ties -- concl~im~ c~ be dra~ and ~ready the questio~m African ~neficans, &sian at ~," he s~d. ~'e popph~g up. Americans m~(I 11ispa~fies But tlml's not the point. · , . -- ~e stopped at a tale Ihgh on eve yones ~st: ~e point is that we're ~'e the figures of any somewhat higher than pa~ng attention. Police v~ue at all? Yes. ~ their percentage of (he m'e beb~g held to a high That we m'e doing tl~ I Potmlation. Aboul 10 per- s~ndm'd of f~ess ~ ms at all me~ we m'e aw~e cent of Iowa City~ dfi~ng they Slwuld be. of ~(1 pay xg altcntion population is nonwhite. Otw besl guess? In the to -- potenti~ able of But without gauging hysteria following gang m~ofities by police, lhe v~idity of tickets m~d actMW, police probably It doesn't ma~er ff we comparing ~'e~ of the did t~get minofil~es for find ~y able. The a~en- oily -- some have a high- speci~ aRention. It w~ tion ~one ~ wo~hw~e: er nonwhite population not m~iciotm, but rather Tt~ s~ed became a than othe~ ~ we cm~ a misguided effort 1o pre- couple of yems ago, )~ a draw no conclusions, vent crone. crackdo~ ofg~gacti~- We suspecl the situa- W in southern Iowa CiW, lh~ [$8~: tion h~ settled dom~, m~d police were accused of I Iowa Ci~ traffic stop ponce ~ gener~y ~ ~e hm'~s~g m~ofifies, data might be hard t0 treating nonwhites anti Police argued there analyze, whiles about the s~e. w~ no policy to enco~- E~ra~tly the stone age officers to tm'get would be better nfinofities ~ ~ there h~ We su~e~: Bul we allen't looking been in off, er cominmfi- I That's 0K. The value al a ('dsis, either. ties. Sorer. people m Iowa isn't s0 much in finding Lel's keep recording (i~' doubted that. something wrong as it is traffic slops. Make the Solution: Keep ret'ords paying a~enti0n t0 p0ten- procedure permanent. of traffic stops. See if tial problems. Make the stalistics more minorities were stopped (lelailed. We might find io 'a ()ty Police Chief Board member Paul white-nonwhite question. R.J. Winkelhake w~m l)rm lloffey offered (hat il The mai value is shn na)y repo~l to the Police years of keeping recor(Is poli('e do not Ihat we Citizens lIeview Board, [)el~)rp Ih{~l'p WOl'e ellotlgh w t,(,pSS~lt'ily [~lld th(~lll Wail [~)r a ftfll year's wotlh of statjsLics, they said. Iowa City Press-Citizen, 4/5/00, 3A Police dog stays on duty. ,By Brian Sharp of the children started m Iowa City Press-Citizen race, and Gallo apparently became excited, Winkelhake~ Iowa City Police might said. increase the handling Gallo still was on his restric~ons placed on their leash when he jumped up, fwst police dog after the 3- grabbed one boy's arm and. year-old released it. IOWa (}i~y G e r m a n The boy -- 9-year-old Shepherd Nicholas Lovelace -- had. grabbed a marks on hhs am~ a/ter the local boy's ,xrm, apparently h~cident bu~ no punctures. during play, over the week- He went to the doctor for a end. eheclmp Monday and was But Police Chief R.J. fine, Winkelhake said after: W'mkelha~ke said that. after visiting with the boy's father. two days of observing Gallo Winkelhake said the for any abnormal behavior, depaz~ment order that gov- there is no reason to pall the ems responsibilities for dog from the streets. Gallo was up for a regularly- The attention to Gallo scheduled review this this week month. stems from a The order states that S u n d a y Gist, as Gallo's handler, is a f t e r n o o n responsible for the dog. But incident at it does not require that only H o o v e r G'mt take the dog out in pub- Elementary lie. That might change, School, 2200 W'mkelhake said, E, Court St. Ga/lo is trained to grab Oanowas Gallo and hold a suspect ff off duty. required during the course Officer Ron Gist, his handler of his police duties. The who works a night shift at dog's actions Sm~day do not the department, was at appear to match that train- home, asleep. Gist's gift- ing, Wmkelhakesaid. friend and her two children This is the fu'st incident had taken Gallo along with of its kind involving Gallo the couple's other dog and since the dog joined the walked to a baseball game a~ force in early 1999. While on Hoover. du~y Monday night, Gist aa~d Once there, they met G-Alo attended a previously another two cl~fldren who scheduled public function knew Gallo and had visited without incident, the dog at Gist's home. Two Winkelhake said. 28 · The Gazette, Wed,, April 5, 2000 Drug dog to stay at handler's side By Lynn M. Tefft Hoover Elementary School when not commanded by Gist. Gazette staff writer around 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Gallo, "Our concern is what we can IOWA CITY -- The Police who was off-duty, stopped at the do to eliminate the opportuni- Department may change its po- school while on a walk with the ty," Wiukelhake said. lice dog policy to require that girlfriend of his handler, Officer Winkelhake said Gist, who the handler be Ran Gist. Gist was at home. was unavailable for comment. with the animal The department's K-9 pro feels bad about the incident. whenever the gram policy coincidentally was dog is out, up already for its periodic re whether on duty view when the incident hap- or off duty. pened, Winkelhake said. He "That's the said he will recoxnmend that most logical so the policy dictate that the dog lution," Police be kept away from crowds when Chief R.J. Win- it is being exercised. kelhake said Rod Gist Lovelace went to a doctor Tuesday, after Dog's handler after school Monday. Winkel- the department's dog bit a 9- hake said Lovelace's parents year-old while playing Sunday. told him Tuesday their son's As for Gallo, a 3-year-old Get-' skin was not punctured and he man Shepherd who started is doing fine. Winkelhake added working early last year, he will he will help the family file a remain with the department but claim with the city for the will be olsserved closely for ag- medical expenses, if the family gressive behavior, Winkelhake chooses to do so. said. Winkelhalre added that the The Lovelaces were unavail- dog behaved perfectly at a eom- able for comment on Tuesday. munity event with adults and 'l'hough it seems that Gallo children Monday night, was just "being a dog" when he Gallo bit Nicholas l~ovelace nipped at the boy, Winkelhake on the right arm while playing said, it doesn't lessen the con- with him and other children at cern the dog would bite again Iowa City Press-C t zen Police offer traffic-stop information By Brian Sharp ~gue ~5.th you. But then, 1 [.wn (~it?! Press (Titizm~ cm~ say something else, and I'm not too sure you could Iowa City Police have m'gue with me." expanded their collection of g, qlat the numbers say traffic data h~ ~ ongoing lifts: efforl to show that officers · After two months of do not engage h~ racial pre. study, 16 percent of filing, a hot-button issue that motorists stopped by police has gripped other depart- were minorities. Some of Inents across the nation, that data were co~sidered Police begm~ collecting muceliable and were race and scrapped. By the end of the gender hffor- year, the mh~ority percent- marion last age was 14.8 pement. For the summer on first tturee months of 2000, it all motorists was 14.3 percent. s t o p p e d, About 10 percent of Iowa regardless of City's driving population is ~vhether offi- nonwtfite. cers issued a · For the last five months ficke~. The Wink~lhake of 1999, theraceofmotorists same data who ~vere stopped broke now are being gathered on down into 84.6 percent all t~ic accidents, Police white, 8.6 percent black, 3.2 Chief R. J. Wmkelhake said percent Asian and 2 percent Tuesday. Hispanic, with the remah~der But the same basic prob- beh~g other or mflmown. lem remains: How cm~ the · For the first tlm-ee irffonnation be used, or to months of 2000, a similar what cm~ it be compared, to breakdown showed 85.;/per- "What I'm looking at here black, 29 percent Asim~ isjus~ numbem,"Winkelhake 2.2 p('rcen~ [Iispmfic, ~vith (itizens Review Board, Irma CiD' I'olice recold crfllected since Aug 1. [)(,re'eon Aug I ~u~(I Dec 3l and rm no~ too s.r~' 1 ('~ See POLICE, 8/1 Des Moines Register -- March 29, 2000 -- p. lA Court curbs police searches ~vmc"a"nca"['u A police group said decades,aseries of ASSOCIATED PRESS conservative-led rulings dra- Was~ngton, ~).C -- rbe the nation's street/; maQcally narrowed protec- Supreme Court sharply cur- maybecome more tions offered bv the Consti- tailed po[ice power to rely on tution's Fourth'Amendment anonymous tips to stop and danDerous, m on unreasonable police search people. The unani- mous rulLng Tuesday was a juslily a police officer's st0[~ searches and seizures. victory for civil rights, but a and frisk of that person," 'Taks was a slam-dunk police group said the nation's Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg victory for individual rights," streets may become more wroteforthecourt."Wehold said James Tomkovicz, a dangerous, that it is not." University of Iowa law pro- The court said Mi~'ni policeShe said such "hare-bone fessor who represented the acted unlawfully when they tips" generally do not give American Civil Liberties searched and arrested a ju- police the reasonable suspi~Umon and other groups in a venile in 1995 for carrying a cion of criminal conduct frienE~)f-theq:ourt brief at- ,mm after an anonymous needed to justify the type of tacking searches based on telephone caller said someone stop-and-frisk search the na- anonymous tips. matching his description had tion's h/ghest court has al- '~I'be court made dear it is a concealed weapon, lowed for the past 32 years, nbt going to sacrifice per- "The question is whether The court's unanimity sonal privacy whenever the an anonymous tip . .. is, caught some legal experts by magic word 'firearm' is without more, suffident to surprise. Over the past two mentioned," he said. Daily Iowan -- March 29, 2000 ~- pp: 1A-5A No stop-&-frisk on tips, high court rules lA UI law 8y C~ph T~ppe unlawfully when, in 1995, they seaz~h~d court. ~Are hold that it m noL" PROFESSOR ~,k eeaz~ that t~e nafiml'~ b~d~at "['he ~u~ made clear ii is not ~up~ ~ve di~ ~e f~e~ ~.. ~ o~ ~ ~ ~m~ ~ Po~ ~ ~ ~_ ~,' ~ ~d. Iowa City Press Citizen -- March 29, 2000 -- p. iA / Court limits anonynious, tip use by poliee WA~I~qGTON -- The cimghtsomelegalexpel~by Sup~meCom~uplTcu~ surprise. Ov~chepa~Cwo odler s~ld Glnsburg empb~c by ~e ra~ ~e