While minority students have voiced concerns regarding Carbondale racial profiling, some people wonder if the issue will ever be resolved.

Danielle Soto, assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said although she believes there is a clear racism problem with law enforcement across the country, it’s not fair to target all police because not every officer is to blame.

“There are lots of really good officers out there who do their jobs fairly, but we can’t ignore the bad ones who present clear examples of bias,” he said. Racial profiling is the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement

such as making a traffic stop or arresting the individual. Soto said it goes much further than the police when it comes to racial

profiling in America. “This is a very sensitive issue that should be addressed much deeper than

simply with the police stations in each county,” she said. “Racial profiling is a part of the system. It goes way beyond each individual city, and there is a much bigger issue here.”

Todd Sigler, director of the Department of Public Safety, said he believes there are areas where profiling exists, but he does not believe it is a university issue.

“I fully support gathering the data for racial profiling and watching it closely. However, we have to understand the context of the area being policed,” Sigler said.

Sigler said college students are often not counted in the census, so he questions whether the minority count is being accurately reflected.

He said if his department does notice disturbing trends in their annual data review, they meet with officers to remind them not to be biased.

“We have to remember we’re not actually a traffic stop department, we’re

more of a safety mechanism, so if an officer pulls over a handful of people

in a year and majority of to say that’s profiling?”

he said. Soto teaches crime she said shows traffic stops

students how different race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and

inequalities influence the processes involved in the definition and regulation

of behavior through criminal law.

She said she teaches students about the Disproportionate Minority Contact and the “War onTODTrAugLs:,”3w,4h4ic3h have each conducted studies on the amount of arrests and traffic stops across the country.

“What’s interesting is that there is a disproportionate number of minorities being arrested compared to the number of minorities that are incarcerated,” Soto said.

According to a 2010 study by the “War on Drugs” campaign members, there were more white citizens arrested for drug possession than African Americans.

The study shows that Black citizens account for 13 percent of the population arrested for drug possession in America, she said, but they account for 75 percent of the drug-related incarceration population.

“There seems to be a funnel method occurring here, meaning there are a lot of people arrested, but the white citizens are somehow being funneled out of the system,” Soto said.

With events such as Player’s Ball and Polar Bear, Soto said she has noticed an obvious indifference in how police and the administration handle the events.

She said when it comes to Polar Bear, a non-university event, authorities seem to have more concern with students’ well-being.

“Player’s Ball is sponsored by (a Registered Student Organization), and there seems to be much less police involvement and concern than when the Polar Bear event happens,” Soto said.

Soto said when alcohol is involved there is more regard for everyone’s safety, but there is an obvious difference in how each event is handled, she said.

Sigler said while there is no formal training on racial profiling, officers are given periodic memos of who they stop so they can be aware and up-to-date with their personal actions as law enforcement.

With the altercation that occurred in August 2012 that involved a party on East Walnut and South James streets in Carbondale, which resulted in Carbondale Police using Mace to force partygoers to flee the premises, students remembered a similar incident that occurred in 2007, which sparked a student led march around campus.

In September 2007, members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, along with members of Blacks in Business and the Black Women’s Task Force, orchestrated a student rally around campus. The rally followed an incident with a former Saluki football player who was Maced and arrested outside of Pinch Penny Pub earlier that month, said Byron Blackburn, a graduate student in recreation from Cairo, Egypt and one of the event organizers.

Blackburn said while there were several different interpretations of what actually occurred, many

students felt the incident, along with several others at the time, gave them the spark to organize a march to raise awareness.

“There were a lot of issues in Pinch that night, and they were trying to get people out,” Blackburn said. “(The football player) was walking out of the bar with his back turned to the police and was Maced.”

Blackburn said while the students were unsure whether the march would bring change to the treatment African American’s received, they knew it would raise awareness.

“We wanted to let Carbondale Police know that we knew what was going on and make sure they knew we were aware of what they were doing,” he said.

Blackburn said while the rally gained much recognition, he saw no change in future actions.

The students rallied near Brush Towers and marched around Douglas Drive on campus and ended near Woody Hall. Blackburn said many students held up signs and chanted for change.

While the issue of racism seems

important to some students, some alumni said they had different experiences while attending the university.

Aaron Anderson, a 2010 SIU alumnus, said he had both good and bad experiences with police.

“I had my share of altercations with both SIU and Carbondale police,” he said. “I enjoyed my college experience, but I knew when I was in the wrong when it came to drinking outside of Pinch, and the cops were typically fair with me and the people I saw.”

Anderson said he knows people of all races who had run-ins with the police, but race was never attributed as the issue.

Lauren Preston, an SIU alumna, said she attended SIU from 2007 to

2012 and experienced a fair share of situations with the Carbondale Police.

Preston said one notable experience was in September 2008 when she was driving back to SIU from her Florida home. She said she was unaware of her suspended license until she was pulled over by Carbondale Police.

“I made it the whole trip just fine. As soon as I got into Carbondale, I was pulled over and he ran my license and told me it was suspended and that he had to arrest me for driving on a suspended license,” she said.

Preston said a friend rode back to school with her who offered to drive, but the officer told her no, which caused her car to be towed

to an area tow shop. “Usually they just let the other

person in the car drive your car but (the officer) told us no which was odd, once we got to the police station another odd thing happened,” she said.

Preston said she is African American, Mexican and White, but the officer filling out her report checked the box marked “White.”

“Usually, people always just assume I’m black if anything, so that struck me as strange because he didn’t even ask me my race. He just wrote down what he assumed I was,” she said.