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CNN Live Today

Study Says Police Harrassment of Women is Widespread

Aired June 14, 2002 - 14:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Seeing those blue flashing police lights in your rearview mirror is scary enough by itself. But for a number of women, it was just the beginning of a horrible ordeal. A new report finds disturbing allegations of abuse by police officers. CNN national correspondent Bob Franken has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He told me that if I didn't take my clothes off, that he was going to take me down to get arrested. I thought he was going to rape me, I was so scared. I didn't know what to do.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last year reports spread throughout Long Island of sexual menacing by police officers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was terrified. I took off my clothes. He just stood there laughing in front of me, asking me if I was cold.

FRANKEN: In Virginia, just a month ago, former state trooper William Buck Carter pleaded guilty to bribery. But the bribery was sex in return for dropping a drunk driving charge against a 20-year- old woman he had just pulled over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've concluded that the problem of driving while female is a national problem.

FRANKEN: In a report for the University of Nebraska at Omaha, criminal justice professor Samuel Walker describes a small but disturbing problem. Quote: "where police officers use their authority, often in traffic stops, to harass or assault woman drivers."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We surveyed print media, the stories that had reached the news media over the last 12 years. We found a steady flow of cases. And those cases came from all parts of the country.

FRANKEN: In fact, the study found literally hundreds of allegations of driving while female abuses, and an average of over a dozen substantiated cases each year. Those numbers, gathered over a dozen years, caused police officials to challenge the significance of the report. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic stops from that time period would number in the millions, if not to the hundreds of millions, that have occurred. So when you break that down to a percentage of stops, from over 700,000 law enforcement officers, you're talking about a scintilla of a percentage.

FRANKEN: But the American Civil Liberties Union says the reported number of abuses is far below the actual number that occur.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know we're only getting the very tip of the iceberg. We only are seeing cases that have actually been filed in court, or maybe even more than that, have actually gone to judgment in court.

FRANKEN (on camera): The report also cites a pervasive sexist culture within many police departments, which ignores abuse when it occurs. One suggestion from the authors: hire more female officers.

(voice-over): Studies have shown, they conclude, that male officers are much more likely to use excessive force and engage in misconduct than female officers. And women police are less likely to ignore abuses. Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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