SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Police Commission, in efforts to address racial profiling by the San Francisco Police Department, ordered the SFPD to take immediate action following a hearing that was attended by the ACLU of Northern California, Bay Area Police Watch, La Raza Centro Legal, and other civil rights groups and community organizations. The Commission took the following action based on an ACLU report that was issued last month.

“We applaud the Police Commission for showing real leadership and taking strong action to combat racial profiling in San Francisco,” said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “A tough new policy prohibiting the practice and reporting requirements represent significant progress, but additional steps must be taken. We urge the Commission to prohibit consent searches as the California Highway Patrol did last year.”

The ACLU report documented dramatic disparities in how African American and Latino motorists are treated. In addition to large disparities in stop and search rates in general; the report demonstrated that African Americans are over twice as likely to be subjected to a consent search than whites.

The Police Commission hearing on consent searches is currently scheduled for December 13th.