ACLU begins traffic surveys in Beaver Meadows

ACLU begins traffic surveys in Beaver Meadows
By Sam Galski (Staff Writer)
Published: July 11, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union has dispatched a team of surveyors to Beaver Meadows to compile statistics on the "perceived ethnicity and race ethnicity" of motorists who will be traveling - and potentially stopped by police - along state Route 93 in the borough.

An ACLU attorney on Saturday also confirmed that the organization has secured more than a year's worth of court documents regarding traffic stops conducted by borough police, which will be used along with the statistics to develop a study in response to "concerns" the organization has for policing in the community.

The survey will continue through July 16.

Borough residents alerted Times-Shamrock newspapers on Saturday to a "traffic study" the ACLU was conducting along Route 93 in the borough, which is about 4 miles from Hazleton and has a police department that has made high-profile traffic stops involving illegal immigrants in recent years.

One of the surveyors, Easton resident Tara Stephenson, stood at Rose and Berwick streets with a clipboard in hand, tracking the race of motorists and occupants as they passed by at around 3 p.m. Saturday. She said she was collecting the information for the ACLU.

Forms on her clipboard track weather conditions, direction of travel and the "perceived race" - or whether the driver of a vehicle is black, Hispanic, Asian, "other," "unknown" or white.

Stephenson said she was also asked to document the race of drivers in instances when police stop vehicles. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Stephenson said she had not observed any vehicle stops.

She said she was collecting the data, which she suspects will be used as a "baseline" for a larger study conducted by the ACLU.

But since she isn't directly employed by the ACLU, Stephenson said she didn't know enough about the traffic survey to confirm whether it was arranged in response to the traffic stops that borough police Chief Michael Morresi has made involving illegal immigrants.

"I think it's just to collect data for a baseline that could be used as part of a bigger study," she said. "That's my guess."

The traffic survey will continue through July 16.

Its findings will be merged with about a year's worth of records of traffic stops conducted by Beaver Meadows police, which were obtained through subpoenas, ACLU attorney Vic Walczak said.

"We have gotten records of traffic stops in that area," Walczak said. "We did it in two phases. We got about more than a year's worth of data, covering up to a month or two ago. It's part of our study."

Though it may be new to the borough, Walczak said the traffic studies are "fairly standard" and have been conducted in other communities. In some scenarios, the ACLU has used information from a study to build a case, he said. That doesn't necessarily mean the ACLU will build a case against Beaver Meadows police, he said.

"We have concerns about policing in that area so we are doing a traffic study to help us understand the situation better," he said. "At this point, all we have determined to do is gather the information and analyze it. We have not determined the next steps. That will be dictated by what we learn in the report."

Stephenson was one of three surveyors who were collecting the data on Saturday. She was stationed on a sidewalk at Rose and Berwick streets and was monitoring eastbound and westbound traffic along Route 93. Two other surveyors were working near Lake Marie.

At least two surveyors will be working in the borough through the week between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Angry response

The ACLU survey prompted outcry from council President Jeff Bobish, who said the borough was never officially notified of the activities. Bobish said he first learned of the survey on Saturday, when several residents told him they saw suspicious vehicles in various parts of the borough on Friday.

Bobish reached out to Morresi, who told him about the survey after questioning one of the surveyors.

"First of all, why didn't they notify the borough?" Bobish asked. "What are they trying to do? Second of all, aren't they actually doing what they are accusing us of doing - profiling in Beaver Meadows? The whole survey to me seems asinine. I think this is downright bullying."

Walczak, however, said borough officials would've learned about the traffic survey had they checked with Morresi earlier in the week.

"The chief knows exactly what was going on," the attorney said. "We put him on written notice. He interrogated our folks in the last couple of days. If the borough political leadership has concerns about being in the dark they should talk with their chief. This isn't an undercover-of-the-darkness operation."

Bobish plans to reach out to state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Lower Towamensing Township, and U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, for answers.

He contends the ACLU has resorted to "harassment," particularly in light of the high-profile traffic stops conducted by the chief.

"I just think this is a farce," Bobish said. "This is ridiculous. They're not looking at the overall picture. They're looking at the certain amount of people that the chief pulls over who are actually illegal (immigrants)."

Bobish also questioned the accuracy of the surveys, asking how someone can observe the ethnicity of a motorist who's driving by at 35 miles per hour.

"How can you possibly sit there and see what type of race these people are - whether it's white, black or Hispanic?" the council president asked.

He said people are pointing at Morresi and saying he "wants to be in the limelight.

"He's not. He just wants to do his job," Bobish said. "The ACLU came in once before, looking for his record on traffic stops to see in general how much he was profiling. I haven't heard anything about that since."

Walczak emphasized that the ACLU has never accused the chief of profiling.

"We haven't accused anybody of being anything," he said. "You will not find a printed word and I can assure you there's not been a spoken word of accusing the Beaver Meadows police of doing anything (wrong). We have concerns. That's why we're doing a study. We have not made any accusations or allegations. If we want to bully, they'll know it. Ask Barletta if we know how to bully."

Walczak is lead attorney for the ACLU in its case to have the federal courts strike an ordinance developed during Barletta's tenure as Hazleton mayor that would've made it illegal to knowingly house or employ illegal immigrants in the city. Barletta has since moved on to Congress. The city has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to settle discrepancies in lower court rulings over whether states and municipalities can take limited steps in assisting the federal government in enforcing immigration law.

A spokesman for Barletta's office declined to comment Saturday on the ACLU's survey efforts in Beaver Meadows.

Trouble with ICE

Barletta shared a story on the House floor about Morresi's unsuccessful attempts on May 2 to get assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when arresting an illegal alien after a May 2 traffic stop in the borough.

At the time, the driver, Oswaldo Tlalmis-Perez, was found with $3,000 in cash and two state-issued food stamp cards bearing different names. Morresi contacted ICE agents, who decided the case was not a priority and that Tlalmis-Perez should be released.

Traffic stops in one local community were also the subject of an ACLU open house held at the Crystal Barbeque in Hazleton in April 2010. Though Beaver Meadows was not specifically named, one resident who attended the meeting alleged that a police officer in the Hazleton area was violating people's civil rights by pulling them over because they have dark skin and then asking about their immigration status.

In October 2009, Tracey Hubbard, an immigration attorney in Scranton, told the Standard-Speaker that she felt Morresi inappropriately handled a case involving one of her clients, Ambrosio Perez-Vasquez.

According to Standard-Speaker archives, Morresi stopped a truck in July 2009 driven by Perez-Vasquez, who had a driver's license, a vehicle insurance policy, a Social Security card and a receipt for a federal tax return. When Perez-Vasquez returned to Beaver Meadows in August, having been released by an immigration judge due to hardship, Morresi filed charges against him.

"I think he is a media hound the way he got television and newspapers involved in the story after telling me there was an arrest warrant for my client," Hubbard said at the time. "Within 45 minutes he had Scranton police officers in my office and then contacted the media. I've never seen this done before. I think he is a bit overzealous."

Bobish, however, said he stands by the chief.

"To be accused of profiling - that's not our chief," Bobish said. "That's not him."