By Tim O’Meilia
Pressed to reject a traffic-stop policy that has been linked to racial profiling in major cities, Manalapan town commissioners unanimously ratified withdrawal of the program that had been discontinued 21 months ago.
The commission in 2010 had backed the program designed to focus on hotspots of traffic stops, pointing to statistics in larger cities such as Baltimore, Oakland and Nashville that revealed that more stops led to more crime arrests.
“My understanding was that it had nothing to do with racial profiling but defining the areas where the most activity is taking place,” said Mayor David Cheifetz, who was a commissioner then.
Town resident Kersen De Jong, who has filed a racial profiling complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, has claimed the program, formally titled the Data Driven Approaches To Crime and Traffic Safety, is an excuse for town police to force transients and nonresidents from traveling through the town.
“Undo what you have done in 2010,” De Jong said at the Oct. 22 meeting. “If you agree with what Chief (Carmen) Mattox has done (in canceling the program), then undo what you have done two years ago.”
Traffic stops in the town doubled to 2,215 in 2011 but only 30 led to arrests, 1.5 percent.
“What we approved here in 2010 had nothing to do with racial profiling,” Commissioner Louis DeStefano said before the 7-0 vote.
“All of us are against racial profiling,” said Commissioner Howard Roder, who approved the policy along with Cheifetz and DeStefano in 2010. “We should take a vote and eliminate it. Since I voted for it, I intend to undo it.”
Mattox discontinued the project after he became chief in early 2012.
“I stopped that program. If you would like to stand behind me, I would appreciate it,” he said.
Lake Worth resident Julian Gonzalez told commissioners that profiling has yet to stop, citing an Aug. 24 incident in which the ID card of a Seagull Academy student was found in the La Coquille Villas garage.
He said Manalapan police visited the student’s house twice demanding he answer questions but the student was not home. “Because he was black, they sent a police officer to his house not once, but twice,” he said.
The student is a special needs child who daily rides the bus through the villas garage where another student is left, police learned.
La Coquille Club resident and Town Commissioner Chauncey Johnstone said villa management called police after the ID card was found.
Mattox said police investigated to discover why the card was left, as he said they would in any circumstance. He said police spoke only with Creole-speaking relatives and did not demand that the teenager answer questions but call the department. The ID was returned.
“This was not a racially motivated incident,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “We were protecting the residents of the town and nothing was found.”
In other business, town commissioners:
• Postponed a decision on increasing the $2,000 limit on homeowners making landscaping changes every six months without appearing before the town’s beautification committee. The commission also will consider eliminating a requirement that walls, fences and paving be included in the limit. The town will survey residents before reconsidering the issue in December.
• Will consider in December reinstating Manalafest, a townwide festival held from 2003 to 2008 to encourage residents to get acquainted. The event was discontinued in 2008 during the recession because of cost.
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