Editorial: On profiling, residents should welcome facts, not fear them

Each year the Longview Police Department — along with most other state policing agencies — submits a report to the state on racial profiling.

Each year the News-Journal runs the results of that report, whatever they might be. The newspaper does not do the research, members of the Longview Police Department are responsible for tracking the data. The News-Journal merely reports on the numbers kept by the officers themselves and reported to the state as required by state law.

We should note here that the police department didn't make up or misrepresent the numbers. It had them compiled by a third party, a consultant who produced a forthright look at what the facts represented. We've seen reports from other area agencies over the years that looked suspicious in this regard, but not from Longview police.

Furthermore, the newspaper did not seek out the opinions of Alex del Carmen, executive director of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies at Tarleton State University. He is the consultant who has compiled and analyzed the results for Longview police for several years.

What Del Carmen highlighted from the report — not the News-Journal — was the indisputable fact police searched the cars of black drivers at twice the rate it did for white drivers. He also suggested that Longview police take three months to try to determine what was causing that discrepancy.

The newspaper reported that directly from his analysis.

Even with all of that, the uproar from some members of our community has been astonishing, suggesting the newspaper is somehow attempting to "stir things up" and that the report had no news value.

It is indicative of the problem that so many people get incensed when the issue of race is broached even tangentially. It also points to the difficulty Longview is going to have in bridging the racial divides that, yes, still separate us.

Reporting facts such as these does not "stir up" anything, but revealing them can help us continue the journey to change what needs to be changed. Such change would have the side effect of making Longview a more unified city, not causing more rifts.

As some readers have suggested, given the violent year Longview suffered in 2015, there are many valid reasons for the report to show figures such as these. Not least of those is that if police truly expect residents to step forward, to speak out about what they know about crime and criminals, those of all races must trust our officers. Feeling they are treated fairly is key to such trust.

In suggesting Longview police find out why blacks are searched at such a high rate, Del Carmen is not inferring there was anything wrong in the department, either. He is — correctly — saying that knowledge is better than ignorance. Many residents have been willing to give their opinion as to why the numbers look this way but not one of them has looked at it closely. It is nothing more than a guess.

We want more facts and less hyperbole. As we are able to print facts we will do so, no matter how they might look or who might be upset. We much prefer informed and rational discussion to the alternative.