The officers with High Point Police Department, an easy-going and good-natured lot who outnumbered Busam and his fellow sheriff’s deputy at least five to one, made up most of the boots on the ground. Two state troopers were also present, and a couple officers with the UNCG Police Department would soon join the gathering.
“Okay, I think we’ll get started,” Busam said. He told them they didn’t really have enough officers to set up on Wendover Avenue, as planned, and instead would conduct the checkpoint on Piedmont Parkway, a leisurely four-lane road that forms a shortcut between Guilford College Road and Wendover Avenue and connects a shopping center anchored by the Rush and another anchored by a Lowes grocery.
“You may as well do your own court dates,” he added. The phalanx of law enforcement vehicles filed out of parking lot, drove a short distance south on Piedmont Parkway and then, one by one, pulled U-turns and parked along the shoulder with blue lights flashing on either side of the intersection of Woodpoint Street.
Busam set out traffic cones on the northern end to funnel approaching vehicles into one lane, and the various officers took up positions on the grassy median. At exactly 10 a.m., the checkpoint was in place.
The vehicles varied: commercial vans, rattletrap cars, a Dodge minivans, a GMC Yukon XL SUV, work trucks, late-model Japanese-make sedans driven variously by Hispanic workmen, pizza delivery drivers, young Asian women, African Americans and whites. The drivers’ comportment was consistent: mild panic, followed by fumbling for driver’s licenses and usually a cordial greeting to the officer at their window.
Guilford County law enforcement agencies have come under scrutiny for their handling of checkpoints in recent months because of concerns that discretionary arrests of undocumented immigrants for not having valid identification could lead to deportation.
Sgt. Mark Busam speaks with a driver at a Click It Or Ticket checkpoint on Bridford Parkway on May 27. (photo by Jordan Green)
Thanks to a law passed by the NC General Assembly, the
state’s Division of Motor Vehicles cannot issue driver’s licenses to
drivers who are unable to establish that they are legal residents,
making the very act of driving a crime punishable by deportation.
More
seriously, immigrant advocates have raised questions about whether
local law enforcement agencies are engaged in racial profiling —
another term for discrimination. The 1968 Safe Streets Act prohibits
discrimination by law enforcement agencies that receive funds from the
Justice Department, and the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act prohibits law enforcement agencies from depriving
people of their constitutional right to equal treatment. The Justice
Department’s civil rights division has authority to investigate local
law enforcement agencies and take civil action to remedy alleged
patterns and practices of discrimination. In 2003, the Justice
Department signed a memorandum of agreement with the city of Villa Rica
in Georgia, mandating that its police department enhance reporting on
highway stops, improve training and self monitor to ensure against
racial profiling.
Last month the wife of the Greensboro Human
Relations Commission reported that she observed a Greensboro police
officer selectively stopping Hispanic drivers at a Click It or Ticket
checkpoint on Aycock Street. The city’s human relations department was
unable to investigate the allegation because the unidentified woman did
not file a formal complaint, but that didn’t prevent the account from
being circulated among advocates for more lenient immigration
enforcement policies.
The Greensboro Police Department was not
among the participating agencies at the recent Click It or Ticket
checkpoint on Piedmont Parkway on May 27, but the pattern of stops that
day suggested no effort to single out drivers who appear to be Hispanic
and might be presumed to have a disproportionate number of undocumented
individuals among their ranks.
If anything, Asians — who make
up only 3.1 percent of the county’s population, according to the most
recent Census estimate — appeared to be overrepresented among the
motorists traveling along Piedmont Parkway.
The checkpoint was
located in out outlying section of High Point that comprises a kind of
no-man’s land in the Guilford County municipal map: A southward jog on
Piedmont Parkway takes you into Jamestown; go in the other direction,
and turn right onto Wendover Avenue, and you’re soon in the corporate
limits of Greensboro. The checkpoint captured traffic exiting the James
Landing subdivision, a well-heeled, predominantly white community with
houses valued at around $300,000, and the Highlands at James Landing,
which is also overwhelmingly white.
High Point police Officer
Brent Kinney, who participated in the checkpoint, said he was surprised
to hear about concerns about racial profiling of Hispanic undocumented
immigrants because Hispanics do not make up a high percentage of those
stopped, and in all his experiences with checkpoints he hadn’t heard of
a single incident in which a Hispanic driver ended up getting deported.
The law enforcement officers staffing the Piedmont Parkway
checkpoint typically took a batch of five to seven cars, with each
officer approaching a separate driver and asking for drivers licenses.
A spotter from the High Point Police Department would call out “First
car,” pointing his index finger over the roof of the vehicle and then
the officers would pass the message down the line until the last
officer, a state trooper, motioned for the vehicle to stop. Sometimes
the spotter would observe a driver who was not wearing a seatbelt, and
ask the driver to pull to the side of the road. Another officer, often
Sgt. Busam, would then write a ticket for the unfortunate driver.
A
typical sequence of six cars subjected to license check was white
female, white female, Asian female, black female, white male and white
male. Busam later said the officers were attempting to stop every
vehicle exiting from James Landing and the Highlands, and while no
pattern of profiling was observed it was not clear that every driver
was required to display a license.
At times, traffic backed up
to the Guilford Crossing shopping center. Busam said that occasionally
the officers were allowing drivers to pass through the checkpoint
without displaying their licenses to relieve congestion.
Rain
was another reason for temporarily lifting the checkpoint. A downpour
began at about 11:17. Busam and three High Point officers took cover
under a tree while a fourth High Point officer waved cars through.
After five minutes the rain let up and Busam said, “Let’s hit it
again.”
Before it ended at noon, the checkpoint would yield 19
citations for seatbelts, one for child restraint and a total of 22
inspection and registration violations, in addition to four driving
while license revoked citations and 12 no operators license violations.
Only one arrest was made: Sidney Rashad Walker, a 22-year-old
African-American male driving a silver Chevy Trailblazer SUV with a
Maryland plate. Walker was charged with driving while license revoked
and improperly tinted windows.
As his colleagues completed
their paperwork or departed for lunch, Officer Kinney examined a 9
millimeter Browning pistol recovered from a book bag in the trunk of
Walker’s SUV. Kinney said Walker had denied ownership of the gun, so
the High Point Police Department would take it in possession until the
rightful owner could claim it. A number of circumstances distinguished
Walker from the other three motorists cited for driving while license
revoked but not taken into custody.
“Mr. Walker is an
out-of-state resident, and he produced a Maryland drivers license,”
Kinney said. “Upon checking that, we found that he had a suspended
license in Maryland. He had one or more unpaid tickets in Maryland and
North Carolina. He was really nice. He was released on written promise
to appear.”
The law enforcement officers staffing the Piedmont Parkway checkpoint typically took a batch of five to seven cars
