No wrongdoing in shoveling incident, police leader says

Officers acted appropriately when they questioned men shoveling snow in Lower Merion last week, the township's police superintendent said at a public meeting Wednesday.

Police stopped five men for going door to door offering to shovel for money after a snowstorm Jan. 27, Superintendent Michael McGrath said in a report released at the meeting. The men were violating a township ordinance that regulates door-to-door solicitations, he said, and police had reasonable suspicion to talk to them. None was arrested or issued citations.

The incidents raised the question of profiling vs. good policing after a woman who saw police talking to two men shoveling her property posted on Facebook, saying she was concerned that police singled the men out because of their race. All five stopped were black.

"They were the only people going door-to-door canvassing and soliciting," McGrath said after presenting his findings during the public hearing. "We can't control what we see."

The report noted that one of the five men had a warrant from Virginia, and another was suspected of having a warrant. A search that took about eight minutes found that he did not, the report stated.

Deborah Saldana, the woman who described the incident on Facebook, said she saw the two shovelers being asked to sit in the snow. The police report stated that asking people to sit is an accepted technique considered less intrusive than cuffing people or putting them in the back of a police car.

"Upon a thorough and comprehensive review of these incidents it is clear that the officer acted in a respectful, professional, and appropriate manner during his interactions with these citizens," the report found.

The report on the incidents was lauded by 11 members of the Board of Commissioners who attended the meeting, though sparks flew when one of the commissioners, Jenny Brown, accused some board members of fanning antipolice sentiment in their responses to comments from the public in the last week. She said she did not believe that officers evidenced racial bias in their policing.

"Until you step in my shoes as a mother and grandmother of African American children, your comments are horrible," said Christine Dixon-Anderson. "We've been working on this for 20 years."

Dixon-Anderson, 65, chair of the township's police and human relations commission, said there were times when officers appeared to single out black males.

After he spoke, McGrath faced a number of African American residents who maintained that the stops would not have happened if the shovelers had been white. Another woman at the meeting, Sharon Eckstein, noted the Board of Commissioners was entirely white. (One commissioner, Steven K. Lindner, is African American. He did not attend the meeting.)

Brown's criticisms extended to Saldana, describing her Facebook post as "an irresponsible use of social media." She noted that the original description had factual errors, most significantly that both shovelers were teenagers. Police reported they were 34 and 18. The three other men stopped ranged in age from 34 to 40.

Brown added that she felt a dialogue about race relations was important.

The solicitation ordinance, which dates to 1964, does not apply to children and religious, political, or nonprofit groups, but police say adults going door to door selling shoveling services without the required $50 permit are in violation. Other legal experts have questioned whether the ordinance can be applied to snow shoveling.

Members of the board said the ordinance was antiquated and poorly drafted.

Board member Scott Zelov said there had been incidents when adults were cited for soliciting for snow shoveling.

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