Denver to Combat Racial Profiling

Denver will collect data every time someone is stopped by police to track racial profiling and to settle a lawsuit brought by black teens allegedly beaten by police after a school dance four years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union said. The city and county of Denver will also pay the four teens $95,000 among them, provide police officers with diversity training and develop a crowd control policy as part of the settlement, said the ACLU, which sued on behalf of the teens. The practice of racial profiling--alleged when police stop a disproportionate number of blacks or other ethnic minorities only because of their color--has been under attack in recent months, particularly by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. Some states have begun passing laws to ban the practice. “This instills faith in the system for me,” said one of the plaintiffs, Marcus Houston, a college student who was 14 at the time.