[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/28/am.intv.gates.police.911.tapes.art.jpg
caption="Det. Lt. Rogers said the Cambridge police officers did not profile"]
On Thursday, the president will meet with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge police officer, Sergeant James Crowley who arrested him. But the newly released 911 tapes and recordings of Crowley’s communication with his fellow officers are raising some new questions.
Police detective lieutenant Steven Rogers, 30-year veteran of the Nutley, New Jersey police department and the author of "Proven Strategies for Effective Community Oriented Policing" spoke with CNN’s John Roberts Tuesday.
John Roberts: Lucia Whalen was the woman who called in after talking with a neighbor who said that she saw a couple of people allegedly trying to break in to the home of Henry Louis Gates Jr. Whalen said two men were breaking into a home and when was asked if they were black, white or Hispanic she said she wasn’t sure but one of them looked ‘kind of Hispanic.’ The official police report said the 911 call described two African Americans who were trying to break into the house. Whalen's attorney disputed that whole notion saying that she never said that two black men were trying to break into the house and the 911 tapes seemed to back her up on that. So a couple of questions arise out of this. What would lead to this discrepancy and based on that 911 call, what would Sergeant Crowley have expected he was coming up upon when he went to Henry Louis Gates’ home?
Det. Lt. Steve Rogers: Obviously there is a discrepancy. That's something that the police department is going to have to work through. However, I’m troubled, John, over the fact this has become a discussion about racial profiling. That was never the case. These police officers responded to a scene that was burglarized once before. And they never brought up race. What’s troubling about this is that the president of the United States made this into an issue of stereotyping the color blue. This is a problem police officers have nationally. We can't look at every police officer as being prejudice and profiling as a result of responding to any crime scene that involves a person of color. So what I’m saying is that these officers acted properly. They did what they had to do according to law and unfortunately, race has come into this picture.
Roberts: So do you think that the president overstepped when he responded to the Lynn Sweet "Chicago Sun-times" question at that press conference about this case?
Lt. Rogers: Yes, John. The president did what people across the country do when it comes to police actions like this. He stereotyped. He shouldn't have done that. He should have gotten the facts. Nowhere was race part of the picture. Those officers responded to a scene of a crime. They didn't profile, they didn’t pick out a white man, black man, Hispanic man. When they got there, there was a situation they had to deal with and they dealt with it professionally.
Roberts: Do we know that race never became an issue here? Professor Gates insists that he believed he was being racially profiled in his own home. We have radio transcriptions of the communications between Sergeant Crowley and his dispatcher. He says the gentleman says he resides here. He's being uncooperative. Keep the cars coming. So he's got a case where maybe his reason to believe that Gates actually lives there but he continues to call for backup and he says that he's being uncooperative.
Lt. Rogers: The key is uncooperative. I've responded to many scenes where people are in their own home. I don't know that they live there. They had not yet shown me identification. So I would say could you please step outside just like these officers did. You don't know if that person lives there, they may have weapons in the house, there may be someone else in the house.
Roberts: Why do you ask the person to step outside? Supporters of Dr. Gates say he asked him to step outside so that he could arrest him because he couldn't arrest him in his own home.
Lt. Rogers: No, I don't think that's true. I think the police officers asked him to step outside because they did not know that he actually was the person who lived there. I don't believe that.
Roberts: He showed him identification
Lt. Rogers: I don't believe he did that before he asked him to step outside. If you look at the whole transcript, the professor was rather combative in the beginning. He said, don't you know who I am? Well, the officers didn't know who he was. So you step outside because there could be someone else in that house. You want to control the situation. I don't believe the police asked him to step outside to arrest him. I just think they wanted to make sure they were safe and they tried to contain the situation, but Professor Gates inflamed the situation.
Roberts: All of them are getting together for a beer at the White House on Thursday. President Obama says he hopes he can use this as a teaching moment. If this is to be a teaching moment, what's the take-away message?
Lt. Rogers: The teaching moment is to the president of the United States: don't stereotype police officers. That's the teaching moment, I believe.
Roberts: You think that's the only teachable moment here?
Lt. Rogers: Well, no, I think that's a very primary teaching moment. In other words, something we should take away from this.
Roberts: Nothing about how the interaction between the police officer and Dr. Gates could have defused a tense situation?
Lt. Rogers: No, John, the police did not cause this situation. They did their job according to the standard operating procedures of that police department and police agencies across the country. Sure, we need to lower the rhetoric. We need to lower the rhetoric but with the truth. The truth of the matter is the police did their job. The professor was offended that they didn't know him. And we have the president of the United States injecting himself in a local issue that would have never got this far if he didn't involve himself.
Roberts: I think there are probably people in this country that may argue with that.
Lt. Rogers: Sure they will.