ANNAPOLIS (AP) — A 10-year-old racial profiling lawsuit known as the “Driving While Black” case was resolved yesterday, after Maryland officials approved a $400,000 settlement for the six remaining plaintiffs.
Each plaintiff will receive $20,000 and $180,000 will go toward legal fees. Another $100,000 will pay for an independent consultant to advise the state police on how well policy changes have worked.
Lt. William Berry, a plaintiff who was pulled over on Interstate 95 in 1996, said he hoped the settlement and its stipulations will send a message that racial profiling won’t be tolerated.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Lt. Berry, a member of the North Carolina National Guard.
Reggie Shuford, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, said the settlement “presents a model for how to seriously deal with an issue of this nature.”
The members of Maryland’s Board of Public Works — Gov. Martin O’Malley, Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot — approved the settlement.
“We believe it represents a reasonable resolution of remaining claims,” David Moore, an assistant attorney general, told the board.
Martin Price, an attorney who has worked on the case since 2003, said the stipulation about the consultant “is the part of the settlement that really has teeth.”
The case was filed by the ACLU, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and several black motorists in 1998, claiming troopers used race to determine when to stop drivers and sometimes searched their cars illegally. A ruling by a federal judge eliminated the NAACP and some of the motorists as plaintiffs.
The settlement includes a joint statement by the parties that emphasizes the importance of taking preventive steps against racial profiling. A mediated forum will be held with plaintiffs, state police officials and representatives from the state attorney general’s office. The settlement also stipulates that state police will make training materials and orders relating to a 2003 consent decree available to the plaintiffs.
The decree required state police to make changes aimed at preventing troopers from pulling people over because of their race, including the installation of cameras in police cars.
State police have not admitted engaging in racial profiling in either one of the agreements. But Mr. Shuford said the settlement indicated all parties are taking the matter seriously.
A trial had been scheduled in May, but all remaining counts will be dismissed. “This is the end of the case,” Mr. Moore said.
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