Urge Congress to Stop Racial Profiling

Many Americans know about racial profiling -- the practice of using race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion as the primary factor in deciding who to subject to law enforcement investigations. In fact, hundreds of thousands of minorities know about it from suffering the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion or ethnicity. 

Racial profiling is an ineffective law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and erroneous assumptions about the propensity of African American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. 

Although the Department of Justice recently issued guidelines on the use of race in law enforcement, its directive had a huge "national security" exception and lacked any enforcement mechanism. Federal legislation is needed to eliminate racial profiling in America. 

New legislation initatives would define racial profiling, make it illegal and require data collection on all law enforcement encounters. It would also provide individuals harmed by racial profiling with the power to stop law enforcement agencies from continuing to profile based on race, religion or national origin. 

Take Action! Urge your Members of Congress to support efforts to end racial profiling!

 Racial profiling is widespread. 
Countless accounts have been reported in the media of instances of unwarranted traffic and pedestrian stops. Department of Justice reports have found that black and other minority motorists were and are being stopped at rate far out of proportion to their presence in the overall population or on the highways. In New Jersey, the problem was so bad before the state finally took action to stop racial profiling that nearby African American and Latino communities had taken to calling the state Turnpike, "White Man's Pass." 

 Some states and local governments have made progress in dealing with racial profiling, but much more needs to be done. 
While the number of states collecting data has increased, many states have been slow to enact effective legislation to outlaw the practice of racial profiling. Only nine states have enacted laws that prohibit racial profiling and the majority of police departments do not collect information on profiling. Federal intervention is necessary to address this nationwide problem in a uniform and consistent manner. 

  Racial profiling is unconstitutional and not an efficient use of law enforcement resources.
Racial profiling violates the 14th Amendment. It also detracts law enforcement resources from the detection of real threats and builds a wall of distrust between minority communities and police departments.  

TAKE ACTION!