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PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano has formed a special advisory board to ensure that the state Department of Public Safety does not engage in "racial profiling."

Members of the panel will review all of the agency's policies and procedures related to traffic stops and vehicle searches. Potentially more significant, they also will be able to review all DPS records to see if DPS officers are using race as a factor when determining which motorists they pull over.

Formation of the board is not the governor's idea: Attorneys for the state agreed to its formation to settle a five-year-old lawsuit that charged that DPS officers were more likely to stop blacks and Hispanics.

The board will be made up of four representatives who will be chosen from existing gubernatorial black and Hispanic advisory commissions. There will be three people on behalf of the people who sued, with two members of the general public.

No DPS employees are allowed on the board. And it cannot have more than two members from law enforcement or prosecuting agencies.

The deal, approved in July, requires DPS to collect "meaningful" data on its traffic stops for the next three years. That includes the race of those involved.

It also requires the DPS to make reasonable efforts to get the Legislature to approve funding to install video cameras in more of its patrol cars.

Officers also will be required to get written consent of vehicle owners before searches. And DPS must modify its procedures when vehicles are stopped so that drivers are detained no longer than reasonably necessary — and specifically to not hold people to wait for a drug-sniffing dog to arrive unless there is reasonable cause to believe a crime is being committed.

The advisory board also can make recommendations to DPS Director Roger Vanderpool or directly to the governor for changes a majority believe are necessary to the agency's policies and practices.