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by David Schechter
(WCCO) Even though Keith Ellison is a state legislator and an accomplished trial lawyer, he still believes he's been a victim of racial profiling in traffic stops.

"But I've never really had specific -- I've never had enough proof," Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis, said. "Because that's one of the things about racial profiling. Nobody's going to tell you, 'I stopped you only because you're black, and therefore ... '"

For more than two years, there has been proof: a $1.9 million state-funded study, "The Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling Report." The report concludes police pull over minorities at a greater rate than whites.

"I think what the study showed, definitively, is that we have a serious problem with racial profiling in our state," Ellison said.

The law does not require police to write down the race of a driver during a traffic stop, but for one year, 65 communities volunteered to do that.

The report shows, in almost every community, minorities were stopped more than whites and minorities were searched more than whites, but minorities were less likely to have illegal drugs or weapons.

WCCO-TV asked Tom Johnson of the Council on Crime and Justice what it means to have these findings in hand.

"Well, what it should mean is that law enforcement across the state says, 'Wait a second,'" Johnson replied.

Johnson, a former Hennepin County attorney, wrote the report. WCCO-TV asked Johnson how communities reacted to the information.

"It was to attack the report, basically," Johnson said.

Rochester, Minn. police Chief Roger Peterson says the study was flawed.

"It doesn't prove profiling exists, and if you can't prove it does, you can't prove it doesn't," Peterson said.

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association agrees. It says the report relies on outdated population figures and makes conclusions that cannot be supported.

"It just wasn't valid," Peterson said.

WCCO-TV asked Johnson if he thinks the findings were solid.

"Absolutely," Johnson replied. "You're talking about nearly 200,000 traffic stops over a period of a year, and what you see is the same pattern in all of those jurisdictions."

Though Rochester Chief Peterson rejects the study, he is in favor of change.

In recent years, through conversations with the minority community, the Rochester Police Department has developed a new policy. Now an officer has to state a reason before pulling somebody over.

Peterson also says you can't blame police for focusing their attention where crime happens: in poor neighborhoods.

"We have disproportionate contact with the poor," Peterson said. "And until people of color are not disproportionately poor, that dynamic is going to continue to exist."

But the state spent $1.9 million on the report, and Rep. Ellison believes it deserves a hearing in the House. Two years later, that still hasn't happened.

"What was going on now is sort of a big hush-hush on everything," Ellison said, "because we can't give the study, or my bill, the light of day."

Ellison's bill calls for the mandatory collection of race data on all drivers who get pulled over. He'll be pushing for it again this session.

The policy is supported by the Minnesota Supreme Court and is a practice in 29 states.

WCCO-TV asked Ellison if the act of collecting the data will help end the problem.

"I think that mandatory data collection is essential so that we can take our own temperature and self-correct," Ellison said, "and if we won't self-correct, then outside forces can shine the light of day on us."

The police officers' association, which opposes Ellison's bill, doesn't want local communities to have to pick up the cost of collecting race information.

On the other hand, collecting the data doesn't have to be expensive. In other states, community organizations have helped pick up the bill.

The police association says training is the answer to racial profiling issues.

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