On those occasions, the senators asked Mr. Verniero what he knew about evidence of profiling.
State Police officials denied that there was any evidence of profiling, despite a Gloucester County judge's 1996 ruling that found compelling evidence of widespread profiling.
In an early draft, the report maintained that the police had only recently provided evidence of profiling.
During confirmation hearings for the judgeship in May 1999, Mr. Verniero gave sworn testimony that he knew of no solid evidence of profiling until earlier that year.
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, whose administration for years disputed a judge's ruling in 1996 that found evidence of profiling, eventually ordered her attorney general to investigate the department.
A1 NEW YORK/REGION B1-11 U.S. Rights Panel Report Finds Evidence of Profiling A draft report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights says city police data indicate that officers engage in racial profiling.
During testimony last week, one of the attorney general's top assistants said Mr. Verniero was provided with statistical evidence of profiling as early as 1997, but did not take action and continued to deny publicly that there was a problem.
At the checkpoints, incidentally, I saw no evidence of profiling, as the regular private security guards inspected passengers and their belongings while small groups of local police, Customs officials and United States marshals stood conspicuously by.
But when a judge in Gloucester County ruled in 1996 that there was evidence of profiling by troopers on the southern end of the turnpike, there was a concerted effort to deny the problem, the documents show.
State police officials denied that the problem existed, even as they collected detailed statistical evidence of profiling and withheld it from the public and federal investigators, according to internal memos.
