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Crime & Safety

Nygren Claims No Racial Profiling, Seipler Questions Investigation

An internal investigation conducted by the Sheriff's Office indicates there is no racial profiling by deputies at traffic stops.

After a seven-month investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Keith Nygren announced there is no evidence to support allegations that deputies engaged in racial profiling while conducting traffic stops. 

The investigation stemmed from a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Zane Seipler in 2008. The former deputy said he was fired after accusing some deputies of targeting Hispanic drivers as a means to increase quotas for performance reviews and promotional opportunities.

Nygren let the numbers do the talking. 

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The 366-page study spanning 2007-2009 showed citations issued to Hispanic drivers were 2,036; 1,987 and 1,689 respectively compared to 13,566; 16,818 and 16,013 issued to Caucasians over the same period. The U.S. Census Bureau states that in 2010 the Hispanic population in McHenry County was 11.5 percent in 2010, up from 7.5 percent in 2000.

Taking into account categories of “no race reported” and “apparent Hispanic surname marked Caucasian,” the study provided that if these were Hispanic drivers, the total numbers for Hispanic drivers would be 1,232 in 2007; 1,055 in 2008 and 913 in 2009 for no race reported and 356, 612 and 501 for marked as Caucasian. 

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The investigation involved scrutinizing traffic tickets and other data, as well as interviewing deputies’ traffic stop procedures and knowledge of gathering racial-profile data, which is required by the state of Illinois for its own tracking purposes at traffic stops. 

Nygren said the review of the data was “complete and thorough,” taking as long as it did because thousands of items required examination by hand, one at a time. 

“If it said we had a racial-profiling issue, we wanted to know that, or if it was something else, we wanted to know that too,” he said.

While the statistics led officials to determine racial profiling was not an issue, there were areas of concern that were pinpointed and addressed, Nygren said. 

Four deputies were found to systematically mismark drivers with Hispanic surnames as Caucasian. Another 16 failed regularly to complete racial data on their reports. 

The study indicated deputies lacked uniform guidelines on determining a driver’s race for purposes of completing the racial-profile data and that they were unclear about consent-search procedures. 

“We needed more frequent, focused training and we needed to do a more complete job of having supervisors audit the tickets to make sure the information was not being left blank,” Nygren said. 

One improvement is that of a new computer system in squad cars that will not allow deputies to issue a traffic ticket without completing the racial data, he said. 

The study recommended employee and sergeant training manuals be rewritten to emphasize laws against racial profiling and that the field training manual be updated to include instruction for racial profiling, consent searches and compliance with the Illinois racial-profiling statute. 

Deputies by law cannot ask a driver their race, even though it is required by the state for its compilation of racial data on stopped drivers. When deputies were in doubt as to a driver’s race, some admitted they did not complete the form or guessed based on last name, according to the investigation. 

Nygren said the statute recognizes “Hispanic” as a race, while not all other systems used by law enforcement agencies do, which can create confusion. 

Nygren suggests the state require drivers to self-declare their race on their driver’s licenses so there is no question by law enforcement at traffic stops. He plans to discuss this possibility with area legislators. 

Undersheriff Andrew Zinke pointed out that the department’s recent accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies is testament that the department is aboveboard in all areas. 

The organization carefully scrutinizes every aspect of a CALEA applicant, combing records, interviewing employees and even shadowing them in their daily routines. 

If there had been any improprieties, CALEA would not have accredited the department, he said. 

Nygren does not believe the study will convince Seipler there was no racial profiling.

“He was asked to provide information that would back that up,” Nygren said. “It was always an accusation without any supporting information.” 

Seipler did not give much credence to the investigation or the subsequent results, claiming that a promise by the department to keep tabs on higher-than-average minority arrests was never carried out. 

He said two of the four deputies cited for mislabeling also had the highest minority stops, which was not addressed. 

“They focused on mislabeling and say it’s a training issue and they forgot about that whole other thing that they said they were going to do but they didn’t,” he said. 

Seipler claims arrest quotas became a competition shortly after the department’s canine unit was created, and he said it was fueled by supervisors’ suggestions that meeting a monthly ticket quota might make them eligible for consideration for the coveted promotion. 

“It became a contest to see who could get the most arrests to get that position,” Seipler said. “And the easiest way to make arrests in McHenry County is chasing down Hispanic drivers and hoping they don’t have a driver’s license.” 

While Seipler said he was fired for being a whistle-blower, Nygren said it was for misconduct to which he admitted. 

The investigation noted that after news reports surfaced in April about the possibility of racial profiling at the Sheriff’s Office, Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, alleged the Sheriff’s Office stood to benefit financially by arresting illegal refugees and converting them into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisoners. 

Hoyt did not immediately return a phone call inquiring about the accusation. 

The investigation is available to the public for viewing. To obtain a copy, complete a Freedom of Information Act form, which can be found at the Sheriff’s Office website.

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