RACIAL PROFILING

Numerous studies over the past few years have provided us with the evidence to support what we have know for decades: law enforcement agents at all levels have consistently used race, ethnicity and national origin when choosing which individuals should be stopped and searched. At the most basic level, it is difficult for our faith in the American judicial system not to be challenged when we cannot even drive down an interstate without being stopped merely because of the color of our skin.

Racial profiling is prevalent at all levels of law enforcement today; one study has shown that approximately 72% of all routine traffic stops on an interstate in the Northeast occur with African-American drivers despite the fact that African-Americans make up only about 17% of the driving population.

The “End Racial Profiling Act of 2001” not only prohibits racial profiling, but it punishes those in law enforcement who continue to use it and it provides training and other incentives for states and local governments to actively pursue policies to eliminate it.

We need this important legislation which takes concrete steps to put an end to the insidious practice of racial profiling at all levels.