ACLU says racial profiling in state continues NEW ORLEANS (AP) (wrkf) - The American Civil Liberties Union says legislators should toughen a law passed in 2001 to prohibit racial profiling by Louisiana law enforcement agencies.

Liza Grote, who led a study of three parishes, is urging legislators to close a loophole in the law that makes it difficult to detect the practice. Under current law, arresting agencies are not required to record a suspect's race if they have a policy against racial profiling.

Grote said the study was conducted in the first three months of 2007. The report used arrest data from sheriff's and police departments from St. Tammany, Avoyelles, and DeSoto parishes.

According to the study, the worst areas were Avoyelles Parish and the town of Bunkie. In Bunkie, Grote says black people are 3.8 times as likely to get arrested as white people.

In DeSoto Parish, black people in Mansfield were more than twice as likely to be arrested than white people.

In St. Tammany Parish, only 31 percent of the population is black, but they are 2.3 times more likely to be arrested than whites.

Grote said she met with St. Tammany sheriff's officials to discuss the report. Chuck Hughes, attorney for the department, disputes the charge that deputies are using racial profiling. © Copyright 2009, wrkf