Original Article DPS settles lawsuit on racial profiling Paul Davenport Associated Press Feb. 2, 2005 11:40 AM The state announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged Arizona Department of Public Safety officers used racial profiling in traffic stops in northern Arizona. The settlement will be submitted for federal court approval, which would result in dismissal of the suit originally filed in 2001 by 11 minority motorists stopped while traveling on Interstate 17 and Interstate 40. In the settlement, the Department of Public Safety reaffirmed its past denials that Highway Patrol officers used ethnicity to decide which motorists to stop. Other settlement provisions include having the DPS declare its intolerance of racial profiling and to train and discipline officers accordingly. Other provisions include collecting statewide data on traffic stops and working to put video cameras in patrol vehicles to record stops, detentions and searches. The settlement includes no damage award to plaintiffs. However, the state said it agreed to pay the plaintiffs just under $140,000 in attorney fees and costs. The settlement followed mediation ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after the plaintiffs appealed a U.S. district judge's dismissal of the suit.