The American Civil Liberties Union is looking into allegations that the St. Charles Police Department has engaged in racial profiling targeting Latinos.
Citing a large volume of complaints, the ACLU's Eastern Missouri legal director, Tony Rothert, said the civil rights organization was looking into whether St. Charles police have violated civil rights laws in trying to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
"There is a perception that St. Charles police are engaging in racial profiling," Rothert said last week. "That's something we're looking very seriously into."
Rothert said most complaints came from Latino residents who say they were stopped by police because of their race. He said five or six complaints in the last six months have prompted the organization to take a closer look at the issue.
Questioning people based on race is a violation of federal civil rights law, ACLU officials say.
Most of the complaints were directed at St. Charles police, Rothert said, but complaints have also come against the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department and the O'Fallon Police Department.
Detective Derek Piasecki, public information officer for the St. Charles Police Department, said the department stops and questions people based on probable cause, not race. He said officers sometimes stop individuals who behave suspiciously, such as hanging out in empty parking lots of closed businesses. Such activity constitutes probable cause, he said.
In those instances, he said, officers often ask for identification. When people don't have identification, officers contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Piasecki said undocumented immigrants often are unable to present identification.
"No matter who it is, we would check them," Piasecki said of individuals in abandoned parking lots.
According to the Missouri Attorney General's Office, which keeps statistics on police stops and race, the St. Charles Police Department was only slightly more likely to pull over Latinos than whites. In 2007, 2.4 percent of all stops made by St. Charles police were of Latinos. In St. Charles, Latinos account for about 2.1 percent of the population, indicating they are slightly more likely to be stopped by police than would be expected based on population. Whites make up 89 percent of the population in St. Charles and accounted for 87 percent of police stops.
Those statistics were higher than those of surrounding cities and the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department, which stopped Latinos at rates lower than their population percentages.
The police department had not been contacted by the ACLU about the investigation last week, Piasecki said.
Unlike some local police agencies that have undergone special training, the St. Charles Police Department is not authorized to enforce federal immigration law. Piasecki said the department works closely with immigration agents and sometimes holds suspected undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers until an individual's legal status can be confirmed.
Piasecki said the department does not receive specific training in immigration-related enforcement, but officers do receive information on dealing with immigration issues as part of an annual presentation addressing racial profiling. He said the annual training emphasizes the importance of avoiding racial profiling.
Local immigration advocates say local police have profiled Latinos more often in the last few years as the national debate over illegal immigration has grown heated.
Raymond Bolourtchi of Cofman & Bolourtchi, a Ladue-based law firm representing immigrants facing deportation, said St. Charles police are especially aggressive in stopping and questioning Latinos. He said only police in St. Ann in St. Louis County prompted as many complaints as those in St. Charles.
He said the 2007 passage of a state law cracking down on undocumented immigrants has created an extreme atmosphere against undocumented immigrants.
"There is room for abuse by law enforcement," Bolourtchi said in an interview, saying he had a "grave concern" about the actions of local law enforcement.
Bolourtchi said many undocumented immigrants have been reported by co-workers and ordinary residents who have no role in immigration enforcement.
"I don't have a problem protecting the country," said Bolourtchi, who added he supports efforts to find undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes. "It's just become out of control."
All police departments across the state are required to log their car stops as part of a state program tracking racial profiling.
Other departments in the county stopped Latinos at a lower rate than St. Charles police. The rates were 0.64 for St. Peters; 0.71 for the county sheriff; 0.77 for Wentzville and 0.91 for O'Fallon. The lower the rate, the less likely it was Latino motorists or passengers would be pulled over.
Rothert said in instances when the ACLU finds merit in civil rights complaints, the organization contacts the accused party and tries to make sure the abuses are addressed. If the civil rights group is unsatisfied with the agency's response, it files a civil lawsuit.
Rothert said the investigation was ongoing and declined to give a timetable on when it would be finished.
