On February 4, New Jersey state trooper Emblez Longoria filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey accusing state police of using racial profiles to decide which motorists to stop and search for drugs. Longoria claimed that he was "required to work in an atmosphere where the routine violation of constitutional rights of motorists (and) citizens of color was not only standard practice, but encouraged and required by his supervisors" (Associated Press, "Trooper Accuses State Police of Bias," Home News Tribune, February 6, 1999, p. A3; Jennifer Preston, "Trooper Says State Police in New Jersey Discriminate," New York Times, February 6, 1999).

Prior to filing the suit, the 12-year veteran of the New Jersey State Police had protested to his co-workers and superiors against the practice of using racial profiles. He refused to patrol the New Jersey Turnpike unless he was driving the car so that he could decide which motorists to pull over. But, Longoria claims his superiors told him he needed to boost his drug-seizure numbers, and that the best way to do that was to stop drivers of color.

Longoria's attorney, Philip J. Moran, said that troopers used a practice known as "headlighting" to locate and chase minority motorists. According to Moran, headlighting is the practice of pulling underneath an overpass in which there's no background lighting and shining high-beams across the highway so that as cars pass by, police can get a better idea of their drivers' race and ethnicity. Moran said, "You follow minority motorists, particularly young, black ones, on some trumped-up charge. If they don't have anything, you tell them you're giving them a break and let them go." He said that troopers using this tactic do not radio headquarters, even though police are required to call in all stops of automobiles, and do not record the stops in their official activity logs unless drugs are found.

On April 19, 1999 New Jersey Attorney General Peter G. Verniero announced indictments of two New Jersey State Troopers accused of falsifying reports to make it appear that some of the black motorist they had pulled over were white. Troopers John Hogan and James Kenna, who were involved in the April 23, 1998 shooting of three unarmed men on the New Jersey Turnpike and are facing possible criminal charges, now face 19 misdemeanor charges for falsifying records and conducting illegal searches (David Kocieniewski, "Trenton Charges 2 Troopers With Falsifying Race of Drivers," New York Times, April 20, 1999).

This is the ACLU's DWB News Archive.
Know your rights if you are stopped by the police, the FBI, the INS or the Customs Service.