AUGUSTA – Lewiston law enforcement took center stage during a public hearing addressing racial profiling before a legislative committee on Monday.

City officials spoke in favor of establishing a statewide policy addressing the issue, which was widely acknowledged to be not very pervasive in the state at this time.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Larry Bliss, D-South Portland, offered an amendment to replace the original bill, calling for the creation of a 16-member statewide advisory committee, drawing participation from law enforcement and civil rights organizations. The committee would develop a model policy on bias-based profiling, which would include addressing discrimination by law enforcement based on race, ethnicity or national origin. The group would get no compensation for its work.

Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert, a former Lewiston police officer and U.S. Marshal, said Lewiston already has a policy in place, as part of its special accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, making it a potential model for other Maine agencies.

“Our city is growing in diversity and as the faces of the citizens around the state change, it’s critically important we have policies in place around bias-based profiling,” he said to members of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

When a committee member asked Gilbert if he was concerned that changing the status quo could lead to frequent second-guessing of police officers’ actions, Gilbert said police actions already can be challenged for a variety of reasons.

“Officers need to just act within procedures that they are trained in and certainly training is a big part of this,” he said.

Ismail Ahmed, a Lewiston resident who immigrated from Somalia, also spoke in support of the measure.

Ahmed said he enrolled in Lewiston’s citizen police academy to learn more about law enforcement in the United States.

“I feel that there is a concern for those who don’t have courage like me to go through the citizen police academy to understand the law of the land and to understand how the police work,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for the police. As visionaries, we need to look ahead so that tomorrow we don’t have bias.”

Ahmed said cultural differences can play a role in the perception of bias, even where it doesn’t exist.

“Where I come from, when the police stop you, you get out of the car and walk toward the police, they don’t come to you,” he said. “So imagine you are pulled over on Lisbon Street in Lewiston and you turn off the car, open the door and go toward the police officer. … It’s totally different.”

Proponents of the bill said establishing trust between members of law enforcement and the people they serve goes a long way in both preventing bias-based law enforcement and the perception of such treatment by citizens.

“In the countries of origin of many of Maine’s more recent immigrants, police are regarded at best as corrupt, routinely extracting bribes from the public, and at worst, as active instruments of repression, responsible for extra judicial imprisonment, torture and even death,” said Beth Stickney, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.

Michael Bussiere, Lewiston’s interim police chief, said Lewiston’s policy on bias-based profiling has been in place since 1995.

“It’s not new for us, it’s not something I think other police forces will have a problem with,” he said.

Part of Lewiston’s policy is to have a mechanism for people to report any concerns of bias and requires a review of complaints annually. Bussiere did caution against a statewide policy that includes a reporting process that could overwhelm smaller law enforcement agencies.

Representatives from the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, the Maine Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also spoke in support of the bill.

Groups representing Maine’s law enforcement agencies, including police and troopers, chose not to endorse or reject the proposal, based largely on not having enough time to scrutinize the amendment.

The committee is scheduled to hold a work session on the bill on May 13.

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