At the urging of community members and at the direction of the City Council, Portland police soon will be expected to hand out their business cards during every official interaction with the public.

The request to change Police Bureau practice, which now requires officers to provide a business card when asked, arose during Wednesday's council discussion on the bureau's plan to address racial profiling.

Community activists who urged several police chiefs to make the distribution of officers' business cards second nature hailed the council's move. They called it a small but important step by police that would help gain the public's trust.

"We've been asking that for 17 years," said Dan Handelman, who leads Portland Copwatch.

Jo Ann Bowman, executive director of Oregon Action who co-chaired a city racial profiling committee with the chief two years ago, called the action "a low-level community-policing effort" that will go a long way toward improving police relations with minorities.

At first, Police Chief Rosie Sizer resisted the change, preferring that any requirement for handing out business cards be restricted to traffic stops. She hoped to delay any new requirement until the bureau starts issuing electronic tickets, allowing officers to print traffic warnings and citations along with business cards from their vehicles.

Bowman and council members, led by Commissioner Randy Leonard, weren't satisfied.

"To tell the community we have to wait for a half-million-dollar data collection system before we can print out business cards, the community is not that stupid," Bowman told the council.

Leonard agreed. "On every interchange, at the appropriate time, we want a business card handed out," Leonard told the chief, following that up with several questions on when Sizer can achieve that.

Mayor Sam Adams stepped in, giving Sizer two weeks to return to the council with specifics on how the bureau intends to meet the council's wishes. Sizer said it will require a policy change, a clearer definition of exactly the types of encounters in which police will be expected to provide their cards, and probably orders for more cards.

Police union president Sgt. Scott Westerman doubts the business cards will make much of a difference, but is willing to go along with the council's wishes.

"I can't imagine how handing out business cards is going to alleviate concerns of racial profiling," he said. "All it's going to do is cost the city to print more cards."

Listening to community concerns, the council also pushed the chief Wednesday to ensure that police training videos include members of the minority community to ensure they're realistic.

Bowman and others criticized police videos that train officers on improving their communication with drivers during traffic stops, noting that no one of color was in three videos she watched.

Pressed by Commissioner Amanda Fritz, Sizer said she'd allow community experts to help develop and review police training videos. The chief said most of police training is not via video.

The bureau also released its latest data on traffic stops from 2008, which was consistent with past numbers. It showed that African American motorists were stopped at more than twice the rate of white motorists. Police stopped 7,157 African Americans, accounting for 14 percent of all stops -- disproportionately high considering that blacks make up about 6 percent of Portland's population. Yet when searched, African Americans were less likely to have drugs, alcohol or other contraband on them.

Sizer said the bureau continues to try to increase the diversity of the police force through hiring, is considering placing video cameras in patrol cars (they're currently in traffic cars), and isworking with Portland State University on how to best analyze its traffic stop data.

Police figures: 963 sworn officers, which includes all ranks: 846 Caucasians, 54 Asians, 33 African Americans, 25 Latinos, and five Native Americans. There are 798 men and 165 women.

-- Maxine Bernstein: maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com