As the country continues to face protests in support of Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd and others while in police custody, Community Impact Newspaper looked at racial profiling instances in the Georgetown Police Department over the last five years.
GPD Chief Wayne Nero has been the head of the department since 2010. Nero said in his 10 years, the department has had five complaints of racially unjust policing, all of which were investigated and all of which were unfounded, he said.
“Our policies are very clear on the matter of racial based policing, and such actions would not be tolerated,” Nero said.
GPD, under state law, began collecting data on stops of vehicles and pedestrians in 2001. The purpose for the reports are to evaluate and compare the number of motor vehicle stops of persons who are recognized as racial or ethnic minorities and persons who are not recognized as racial or ethnic minorities, as well as examining the disposition of motor vehicle stops made by officers employed by the agency, categorized according to the race or ethnicity of the affected persons, including any searches resulting from stops within the applicable jurisdiction, the racial profiling analysis said.
