'Driving While Black': Delaware County Couple Claims They Were Racially Profiled By Pennsylvania State Police
CHADDS FORD, Pa. (CBS) -- A Delaware County man says he and his wife were racially profiled by Pennsylvania State Police, claiming he was handcuffed right in front of his own home. Back home from a stint overseas for his job, Rodney Gillespie, his wife Angela and their 17-year-old daughter were catching up with a friend on July 7.
But that good time became anything but as Gillespie turned onto Atwater Road, where his upscale Chadds Ford home is located.
On a winding neighborhood street, pitch black at 12:30 a.m. that morning, Gillespie says he saw lights come on "out of nowhere" followed by sirens.
It turns out, it was a Pennsylvania State trooper pulling him over.
Since Atwater Road has no shoulder, Gillespie says he decided to continue about a quarter mile to his own well-lit driveway.
"The police officer gets out of the car and starts yelling," Rodney said. "How old are you? Why didn't you stop? Why are you stopping here?"
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The 52-year-old was then cuffed with his wife and daughter watching terrified.
"The job is to stay alive. I didn't move," Angela said.
After finally identifying the couple, the 23-year-old Pennsylvania State Trooper issued Gillespie two tickets.
"A citation basically related to crossing the line and the citation for not yielding to emergency vehicle, which they dropped," Rodney said.
Gillespie is appealing the first citation, but the bigger issue is why he was even pulled over in the first place.
"The word I use is implicit bias. He saw us. He thought there was something there," Rodney said.
Both Gillespie and his wife believe he was pulled over simply because of the color of his skin.
"Driving while black," Angela said.
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They've filed an official complaint, hoping to see changes made to the training troopers go through, a goal echoed by Rev. Kyle Boyer, president of the West Chester NAACP.
"Helping the state police to evaluate their training methods and if needed, sure up their training methods," Boyer said.
In a statement, the Pennsylvania State Police wrote, in part, "due to the nature of the ongoing Internal Affairs Department investigation, we cannot comment on specifics of the incident. However, the Pennsylvania State Police takes any allegations of racial profiling or bias-based policing very seriously. Internal regulations strictly prohibit racial profiling."
