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Legislation and Litigation

Legislation

FEDERAL

The End Racial Profiling Act of 2001 (H.R. 2074/ Sen. 989) was introduced in the 107th United States Congress on June 6, 2001. The bill would prohibit the practice of racial profiling and would allow victims to enforce the prohibition in a civil right of action for declaratory or injunctive relief. It also would require federal law enforcement agencies to: (1) maintain adequate policies and procedures designed to eliminate racial profiling, including the collection of data on routine investigatory activities; and (2) cease existing practices that encourage racial profiling. States receiving federal funding for law enforcement would have to implement the same policies. The bill is currently pending.

The Executive Department also has taken action to address racial profiling. On February 27, 2001, President George W. Bush directed the Attorney General to review the use of race by federal law enforcement agencies, to work with Congress to develop data collection methods, and to report to him findings and recommendations regarding racial profiling. In 1999, President Clinton wrote an executive memorandum requiring law enforcement agencies within the Department of Justice, the Department of Treasury, and the Department of the Interior to collect data.

42 U.S.C. § 14141, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

Status: Enacted 1994
number jurisdictions required to collect data

Restrictions: no data collection -- provides the DOJ the authority to pursue police misconduct pattern and practice actions

Contact Information:

United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20530
202-514-2000

42 U.S.C. § 3789d, Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968

Status: Enacted 1968
number jurisdictions required to collect data

Restrictions: no data collection -- provides the DOJ the authority to pursue police misconduct actions

Other Information: Together with 42 U.S.C.§ 2000d, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex or national origin by police departments receiving federal funds.

Contact Information:

United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20530
202-514-2000

42 U.S.C. § 2000d, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Status: Enacted 1964
number jurisdictions required to collect data

Restrictions: no data collection -- provides the DOJ the authority to pursue police misconduct actions

Other Information: Together with 42 U.S.C.§ 3789d, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex or national origin by police departments receiving federal funds.

Contact Information:

United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20530
202-514-2000

S. 2114, 107th Cong., 2d Sess. (2002), Racial Profiling Education and Awareness Act of 2002.

Status: Pending
number jurisdictions required to collect data

Restrictions: No data collection - education only.

Other Information: This bill would authorize the Attorney General to carry out a racial profiling education and awareness program within the Department of Justice and to assist state and local law enforcement agencies in implementing such programs.

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ACLU Calls Voinovich-DeWine Racial Profiling Bill A Small Gesture, Not Legislative Solution - (DC)

Contact Information:

U.S. Senator George Voinovich
317 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3353
http://www.senate.gov/~voinovich

U.S. Senator Mike DeWine
140 Russell Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-2315
http://www.senate.gov/~dewine

U.S. Senator George Voinovich
317 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3353
http://www.senate.gov/~voinovich

H.R. 3981, 106th Cong., 2d Sess. (2000), Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2000

Status: Pending
Federal jurisdictions required to collect data: Federal law enforcement agencies including, but not limited to, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service, and the National Park Service.

Scope of Collection: all stops

Data Collected: race, gender, ethnicity, type of search, contraband found, items seized for forfeiture

Other Information: This bill is designed "to encourage greater community accountability of lawenforcement agencies, and for other purposes." Title X outlines data collection provisions for all federal law enforcement agencies including, but not limited to, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service, and the National Park Service. The last action on the bill is that it was sent to the House Committee on the Judiciary, then to the Subcommittee on Crime, in March 2000.

H.R. 2074, 107th Cong. (2001), End Racial Profiling Act of 2001

Status: Unenacted
all jurisdictions required to collect data: Federal law enforcement agencies, and any state or governmental unit receiving money from the federal government for law enforcement

Scope of Collection: all stops

Restrictions: The standards for collection would be established by regulation.

Other Information: This bill would require data collection on routine investigatory activities including traffic stops, pedestrian stops, frisks and other types of body searches, consensual or nonconsensual searches of persons/possessions of motorist/pedestrians, insepections and interviews of entrants into county, and immigration-related workplace investigations. Also requires federal law enforcement agencies and agencies who receive federal funds to maintain policies designed to end racial profiling.

Contact Information:

U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr.
2426 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-5126
http://www.house.gov/conyers/

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
505 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510-4904
202-224-5323
http://feingold.senate.gov/

Office of the Congressional Black Caucus Chair
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson
1511 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-226-9776
http://www.house.gov/ebjohnson/cbcmain.htm

H.R. 1907, 107th Cong. (2001), Racial Profiling Prohibition Act of 2001

Status: Unenacted
number jurisdictions required to collect data

Restrictions: no data collection -- prohibition only

Other Information: This bill would prohibit racial profiling. It does not include any provisions for data collection.

Contact Information:

U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton
2136 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-8050
fax: 202-225-3002
http://www.norton.house.gov/

ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT'S STOP, QUESTION, AND FRISK PRACTICES

RAND Corporation

In 2006, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stopped a half-million pedestrians for suspected criminal involvement. Raw statistics for these encounters suggest large racial disparities — 89 percent of the stops involved nonwhites. Do these statistics point to racial bias in police officers’ decisions to stop particular pedestrians? Do they indicate that officers are particularly intrusive when stopping nonwhites? The NYPD asked the RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) to help it understand this issue and identify recommendations for addressing potential problems. CQP researchers analyzed data on all street encounters between NYPD officers and pedestrians in 2006. They compared the racial distribution of stops to external benchmarks, attempts to construct what the racial distribution of the stopped pedestrians would have been if officers’ stop decisions had been racially unbiased. Then they compared each officer’s stopping patterns with an internal benchmark constructed from stops in similar circumstances made by other officers. Finally, they examined stop outcomes, assessing whether stopped white and nonwhite suspects have different rates of frisk, search, use of force, and arrest. They found small racial differences in these rates and make communication, recordkeeping, and training recommendations to the NYPD for improving police-pedestrian interactions.

FLORIDA: JACKSONVILLE POLICE RECEIVE NO RACIAL PROFILING COMPLAINTS IN ’08

The Jacksonville Police Department presented its annual Racial Profiling Report which covers Calendar Year 2008 and showed that JPD received no formal reports of racial profiling. It also confirmed that local police are conducting traffic stops using legal criteria and not race as their motivation for enforcement action. Currently, the Texas Racial Profiling Law requires that police departments collect data pertaining to traffic stops, pedestrian stops, searches conducted and citations issued.

TEXAS: BELLAIRE MAYOR TO INVESTIGATE RACIAL PROFILING ALLEGATIONS

The mayor of Bellaire responded publicly for the first time to allegations of racial profiling due to an incident of mistaken identity. Officers will now be required to participate in additional cultural sensitivity training. The city is also hiring an independent state consultant to analyze traffic stop data for 2008 and look for incidents of racial profiling. The mayor also promised to release the results of the district attorney's investigation publicly, once it is completed.

CALIFORNIA: TORRANCE POLICE PROFILING SUIT IS DEFEATED

A woman who claimed she was wrongly arrested by Torrance police because of her race has lost her federal lawsuit against the city, a former chief and two officers. Sara Plowden, who lived in Gardena when she filed the civil rights lawsuit in January 2006, claimed she was subjected to a "driving while black" arrest early on Nov. 23, 2003. She claimed the officers physically accosted her and that city officials and former Police Chief James Herren allowed "an atmosphere of lawlessness, abuse and misconduct" to fester in the department.

ARKANSAS: ARIZONA DPS TIGHTENS SEARCH RULES TO AVOID PROFILING

The Arizona Department of Public Safety, in moves intended to prevent and detect racial profiling, is making internal changes that include requiring Highway Patrol officers to document why they search vehicles they stop. Other changes announced by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office include requiring officers to obtain a motorist's consent for a search to get the driver's signature or to use video or audio to record the driver giving permission verbally.

UTAH: UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING

Sherida Felders, a black grandmother, alleges a Utah Highway Patrol officer had no reason to believe her Jeep Commander contained illegal substances, but called in a drug-sniffing dog after stopping her for speeding Felders has filed a suit accusing the trooper of conducting an illegal search of her vehicle for drugs based on racial profiling.