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PLACENTIA, Calif. -- Police must use the letter B as the racial designator on traffic tickets given to blacks after a driver and her church congregation protested an officer's use of the letter N on her speeding ticket.
"I am an African American. I have never been or will ever be the 'N word,'" said Placentia resident Comelita Brown, 43, who was stopped during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last month.
The unnamed white officer wrote N on Brown's ticket. Old law enforcement racial codes used N for "Negro," a designator not in current use.
Police Chief Russ Rice on Wednesday ordered all of his sworn officers to stop using the designator after he received a petition signed by nearly 900 people criticizing the practice as racist.
Officer Matt Reynolds, who heads the police services division, said the chief is "extremely sensitive" to the complaint.
Brown was so upset about the N designation she brought it to the attention of her church, Friendship Baptist.
The petition signatures came with a letter from their pastor, the Rev. James D. Carrington, who asked the chief to take official action to make sure the N designation was not used again.
"Even if he meant Negro, that's demeaning right there," said Winifera Harper. "The word Negro was designed to describe people who were treated as less than human."
