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Los Angeles…Dr. Mark Drummond, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District (“the District”) released the findings of the District’s investigation into allegations of racial profiling made by African-American students, faculty and staff of racial profiling, stemming from actions by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s personnel on the campus of Los Angeles Trade Technical College (“Trade Tech”). The Sheriff’s Department contracts with the District to provide police and security services at all nine of the District’s colleges.
To read the full report, click Report of Investigation 
On October 17, 2007, a contingent of Sheriff’s personnel conducted a “saturation” of an area of the campus in search of illegal narcotics sales and detained 33 people, all African-Americans, as part of the “saturation”. Only one non-African American was detained, a Latino student who was videotaping the incident. The findings of the District’s investigation have substantiated the allegations of racial profiling by the Sheriff’s Department Personnel.
Dr. Drummond stated that when the District was notified of the incident, the District, the Sheriff’s Department and Trade Tech initiated immediate investigations. Moreover, prior to the completions of these investigations, significant measures have been instituted to preclude recurrence of similar incidents. Several of those actions are:
- A new District policy has been issued delineating review and approval procedures that governs policing activities on all nine college campuses within the district.
- Meetings have been held with stakeholder groups to include faculty, staff and most importantly students, to discuss the incident and proactive steps moving forward.
- Members of the District and the Board of Trustees have attended meetings with community-based organizations, concerned citizen groups and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, to discuss the incident and proactive steps moving forward.
- Volunteer task forces have been established at Trade Tech to enhance communications among campus stakeholder groups and to act as an advisory resource for the college president.
- Counseling services have been offered to the students involved.
In light of the findings of the investigation, Dr. Drummond issued the following statement:
“The Los Angeles Community College District is the largest and most diverse community college district in the United States. The policy of the District is to provide an educational, employment and business environment free from any form of unlawful discrimination or harassment. The incident occurring on October 17, 2007 at Los Angeles Trade Technical College was not in concert with our stated policy or our commitment to our students. Additionally, the incident was embarrassing, regrettable and intolerable. We are taking all necessary steps on our part to limit and prevent the occurrence of any such incidents in the future.”
“Upon requesting investigations into the incident, I promised that the findings of the investigation would be transparent and publicized widely. Today, I am following through on that promise. The intent is that such an incident should never happen on any of the college campuses within the Los Angeles Community College District. In addition to the actions already taken prior to the release of the results of the investigation, I plan to take other actions that increase the sensitivity of the treatment and needs of all students.”
The LACCD is the nation’s largest community college district, serving more than 200,000 students on nine campuses. The district has been providing students with quality education since the doors of Los Angeles City College opened in 1929. Nine open-enrollment institutions in the district concentrate on workforce development, re-education of the local workforce and transferring students to four-year universities.
