Bias Incident Hotline

Bias Incident hotline taking calls

Phone service spurred by racially charged incidents

Daily Camera Front Page Story

By Ryan Morgan
Monday, March 10, 2008

Detre Godinez didn't know quite what to expect when her organization turned on the Bias Incident Hotline for the first time last month.The hot line's publicity had been limited to handing out a few fliers, and Godinez said she wouldn't have been surprised if the volunteer-staffed cell-phone stayed quiet. But it didn't: In the first 20 days the line was activated, 17 people called."It was a huge range of complaints," Godinez said. "They were telling us about age-ism, sexism, heterosexism, graffiti, slurs, harassment."The hot line has been a long time coming. Godinez said local activists first started batting the idea around about a decade ago in response to concerns about police profiling.Then, in 2006, Boulder saw a rash of high-profile racially charged incidents in Boulder and on the University of Colorado campus.In October of that year, the Boulder City Council approved $10,000 in start-up funding for the hot line, provided organizers first raised the same amount of money on their own. Organizers eventually raised their share in June, but waited until two weeks ago to take the money.Godinez said they spent the interim recruiting and training volunteers and trying to iron out any kinks well in advance of turning the phone on for the first time.They got help in their training from Moving to End Sexual Assault, the Safehouse Progressive Alliance and the Colorado Anti-Violence project -- all groups that already run crisis hot lines. Each of the hot line's dozen volunteers went through 34 hours of training; half of them are bilingual.People who've experienced bias in any form are encouraged to call, regardless whether it rises to the level of a matter for police or anti-discrimination regulators to investigate, Godinez said. Sometimes, she said, someone who's been called a name or been otherwise harassed just needs to share the story with someone who won't dismiss it."The first thing they're going to offer is support and validation," Godinez said. "Once the caller is ready to talk about what they want to do next, our goal is to assist them."That could mean a referral to a wide range of services, from police to state or federal fair-housing authorities.Stephanie, a hot line volunteer who asked that her last name not be used, said that so far, the people she's spoken to are "relieved" to have the service."It's such a painful experience when you're treated that way, or discriminated against," she said. "Just to be heard, just to have someone listen to you, that can be a really empowering experience in itself."The service has drawn a cautiously optimistic response from local law enforcement officials. When elected leaders approved funding for the hot line, they required its operators not to record the identities of those accused of bias. That's because the city wanted to respect First Amendment concerns and not support a service that could encourage people to report speech that enjoys free-speech protections.And that creates a difficulty for police, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said."We can't investigate or prosecute anybody or do much without that information," he said. "We would encourage people who have experienced a crime to call us and make a police report, because we will investigate it and prosecute people for bias-crimes."But Pelle said he's hopeful that the people running the service will help victims overcome their qualms about approaching police to report crimes. And even in cases that aren't criminal, having a sympathetic ear never hurts, he said."This hot line may help people vent, it may help people feel empowered to call us and it may alert the city to trends we otherwise couldn't know about," he said. "I don't want to be skeptical. I'd like to see it in operation for a while and see what happens."Mark Beckner, Boulder's police chief, echoed that sentiment."We all need to know more about it and how it's going to work," he said. "Hopefully it's going to provide an outlet for people who feel like they've been discriminated against and it's going to provide support. In that sense, I think that's a real positive for the community.

The Bias Incident Hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The number is 720-936-0555.The service is also available via e-mail: Biasincidenthotline@gmail.com