Public Hearings to examine racial profiling

The Times Argus reports that the Vermont State Advisory Committee "heard testimony from law enforcement officers, lawyers, academics and alleged victims of racial profiling during a four-hour hearing Thursday in the Billings Lounge on the University of Vermont campus." The hearing represents "the first in a series planned around the state. The committee will use the information it gathers to write a report, which will likely include recommendations to the Vermont Legislature and law-enforcement organizations"  on how racial profiling relates to law enforcement, other aspects of the judicial system, health care, other public accommodations. Notably, the hearings were spurred in part by a 2004 study by the ALANA Community Organization, "a group that works to build 'inclusive and equitable' communities." According to the ALANA report, "minority households in Brattleboro had a higher incident of contact with police than non-minority households."

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