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What about the Smurfs?

In recent years, Florida law enforcement agencies have been pondering an unusual question of political correctness: If your officers fire at targets that are black in color, is the agency sending a racist message?

Not wanting to take any chances, the Tampa and St. Petersburg police departments, among other law enforcement agencies, have switched to more colorful targets.

"It never was a big issue or a big debate," said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy, whose agency switched to blue silhouette targets from black ones two years ago. "Nowadays, you can never be too sensitive, and we felt that it was the right direction to go."
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Concerns about race are behind the trend, Wynn and Brown said.

Police agencies are wondering what message they are sending by firing at black silhouettes, Brown said.

Wanting to prevent any problems, a few years ago the St. Petersburg Police Department switched from black to "Smurf blue," agency spokesman George Kajtsa said, referring to the pint-sized blue villagers of 1980s cartoon fame.

"Perhaps someone would misconstrue it as a racial issue, so before it became an issue, they switched to a different color," he said.
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Dee Johnson, who teaches a criminal justice class at Durant High School, was at Shooting Sports gun range in Tampa one recent weekday, supervising her students.

She thinks the traditional black silhouettes are fine.

"I, for one, don't see it as a racial issue," said Johnson, who is black. "And I am the type to address racial issues."

Marshall Felton, who was practicing with his pistol at The Indoor Shooting Co. in Thonotosassa, thinks switching to blue targets is a good idea.

"If you keep seeing the same [black] image, I guess it might affect your subconscious," Felton. said.