ACLU of Florida's Racial Profiling Web Page
I. Introduction
II. History
III. Research and Recommendations
IV. Importance of Data Collection
V. Florida Focus
VI. Help Us Arrest the Racism in Your Community
VII. If You're a Victim of Racial Profiling
VIII. What to do during a police stop
IX. Links
I. Introduction
Since the tragic events of September 11th, we have all become more concerned about our safety. Unfortunately, some law enforcement agencies have dramatically escalated racial profiling practices under the misguided belief that race discrimination will make us safer.
Racial Profiling is the discriminatory practice of substituting skin color for evidence as a basis of suspicion by law enforcement officials. Fueled by the "War on Drugs" or the "War on Terrorism," the police stop people who they think fit a certain "drug courier" or "terrorist" profile. However, that war has sometimes spawned racist profiles of alleged terrorists or drug couriers, and law enforcement officials in some instances stop drivers or airline passengers based solely on the color of their skin.
The ACLU is at the forefront of the movement concerning racial profiling and has taken definitive actions. One of the reasons the ACLU launched a national campaign against Driving While Black ("DWB") is that, despite mounting evidence, official denial of the problem has persisted. Accordingly, the ACLU has adopted the following three pronged strategy toward vanquishing discriminatory police stops:
1. Litigation
The ACLU has filed lawsuits in numerous states, including Montana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida. Some of the settlements have required the police to record information from traffic stops, including the race of the driver. As the DWB movement has gained momentum, police departments have started to voluntarily collect such "racial data," (including race, ethnicity, gender and age). For example, the police departments in Miami-Dade County, San Jose and San Diego are now voluntarily collecting such data during police stops. The voluntary collection of such information allows police departments to better respond to allegations of profiling.
In June 2002, the ACLU filed five lawsuits against four major airlines challenging the removal of five men from their respective flights. The lawsuits allege that the removals constituted illegal discrimination in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A New Jersey federal judge ruled in October that the suit against Continental Airlines can go forward.
Click here for more information about these cases.
2. Legislation
During the 2001 Congressional legislative session, the ACLU called for passage of the federal End of Racial Profiling Act of 2001. It is important to note that both President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have called for an end to racial profiling. At a press conference on March 1, 2001, Ashcroft ackowledged that racial profiling is "as big a problem as you can get." When asked how he would address the problem should Congress drag its feet on the issue, he stated: "I will simply launch a study of my own."
Although this was an important step toward ending the national disgrace of racial profiling, unfortunately the "war on terrorism" following the tragic events of September 11th has prompted some law enforcement agencies to single out people based on their race. In an effort to beef up security, police departments across the country have dramatically escalated racial profiling practices under the misguided belief that race discrimination will make us safer.
Racial Profiling is not the way to fight terrorism. Singling out people based on their race is discriminatory, counterproductive and inconsistent with American values.
3. Increasing Public Awareness
The ACLU has increased public awareness through its extensive media coverage. When the ACLU established its nationwide toll-free hotline (1-877-6-PROFILE), the number was advertised in public service announcements on radio stations, on highway billboards, and in print media like Emerge, a popular magazine for black audiences. The ACLU of Florida will soon launch another ad campaign targeting Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
- Click here to see the ACLU's "man on the left" ad
- Click here to see the ACLU's "which man is guilty?" ad
II. History
Racial profiling is rooted in racism, a problem that has persisted in our country for some time. The practice of systematic racial profiling became further institutionalized through a 1986 Drug Enforcement Agency program called "Operation Pipeline." To date, this little known highway drug interdiction program has trained approximately 27,000 police officers in 48 participating states to use pretext stops in order to find drugs in vehicles.
The use of pretext stops was bolstered in the next decade by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions allowing police to use traffic stops as a pretext to "fish" for evidence of wrongdoing.
III. Research and Recommendations
In the first comprehensive look at the problem, the ACLU issued a report documenting the racial profiling of minority motorists. Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation's Highways
cites police statistics on traffic stops, ACLU lawsuits, government reports and media stories from around the nation in making the case that skin color is being used as a substitute for evidence and a ground for suspicion.
A key finding, the ACLU report said, is that the heightened "war on drugs" of the past two decades -- in which blacks and Hispanics have been disproportionately arrested and jailed -- has unfairly legitimized the notion that people of color are more likely to violate drug laws, a notion that the government's own statistics disprove.
The Report makes five recommendations to end DWB, including a call for the U.S. Department of Justice to end the use of racial profiling in federally funded drug interdiction programs. Specifically, the ACLU is calling for:
- An end to the use of pretext stops as a crime-fighting tactic;
- Congressional passage of the federal Traffic Stops Statistic Study Act;
- Passage of remedial legislation in every state;
- A ban on racial profiling in all federally funded drug interdiction programs;
- Collection of city-by-city traffic stop data on a voluntary basis.
The ACLU also stated that the Justice Department should create an early warning system for problem officers, require the use of written consent forms before conducting a search, and ban the practice of extending a traffic stop so that drug-sniffing dogs can be brought in.
IV. Importance of Data Collection
The ACLU emphasizes the importance of data collection (race, ethnicity, gender, and age) at all police stops (vs. arrests or stops resulting in tickets), as victims of racial profiling are often stopped, detained, and searched without being ticketed or arrested.
Currently, most police departments are unable to defend themselves against charges of racial profiling because the relevant data is unavailable. The voluntary collection of such information would benefit police departments by providing them with concrete data to respond to allegations of racial profiling.
An increasing number of law enforcement agencies are now collecting data on the race and ethnicity of those stopped in police-initiated contacts with citizens. The collection of such racial data is voluntarily performed by the police departments in Miami-Dade, San Diego and San Jose, California, and racial data is also collected by the Pittsburgh police and the Maryland state police as the result of lawsuits.
In October 2000, the Miami-Dade County Commission authorized a data collection study as well as the creation of an Advisory Board to oversee the study. An ACLU representative serves on the Advisory Board. The group met for the first time on March 28, 2001 to discuss several preliminary data collection issues and the "citizen contact card," which is the data collection instrument the Miami-Dade police officers use to collect data at each traffic stop.
The Miami-Dade Police Department's data collection study began February 12, 2001, and was concluded in October 31, 2001. An independent research group is now in the process of gathering, comparing and analyzing the data. Upon completion, the information gathered from the study will be compiled into a final report and presented to the Miami-Dade Police Department and to the public.
Within the next several months, the Advisory Board and the research group will hold a community meeting to discuss the results of the racial profiling study.
The Florida Highway Patrol began collecting data on every discretionary traffic stop conducted by a trooper on January 1, 2000. The data reported include race, ethnicity and gender, among other things. The information is entered into a computer database maintained at FHP headquarters in Tallahassee. The FHP continued to collect this data until January 2001.
Click here to view the results of the FHP study.
V. Florida Focus
1. Miami-Dade County
In June 1998, U.S. Representative Carrie Meek asked for an Independent Review Panel inquiry to address complaints by African-American males about police brutality. Representative Meek's request contained the following "three discernible allegations": that young African-American males are more likely to be targets of police attention and subject to arrest than others; that young African-American males' complaints of police brutality are inordinate compared to those of non-African-American complainants; and that the complaints of young African-American males are not expeditiously pursued compared to those of others.
In response to "Police Complaints and Race: An Independent Review Panel Preliminary Staff Report," which reviewed citizen complaints about police activity and "use of force" for the period 1994-1997, the ACLU found that the statistics in the Panel's own report supported the allegations of racial profiling and excessive use of force. The Report indicated that 46%-50% of all arrests made by the Metro-Dade Police Department ("MDPD") are of African-Americans -- more than twice the percentage of African-Americans in the County's population -- which is a disproportionate and statistically significant amount.
Additionally, the ACLU response made several recommendations and urged the panel to incorporate those changes into its report. Most strongly, the ACLU urged the the Panel to recommend that the MDPD and the police departments in Miami-Dade County municipalities voluntarily record the racial data of the people they stop to question or arrest.
On December 4, 1999, the ACLU of Florida gave a statement at the Independent Review Panel's Public Hearing before U.S. Congresswoman Carrie Meek. The hearing was attended by county commissioners, leaders in the local African-American community, local civil rights groups, and numerous citizens who related their personal experiences with racial profiling. Held in the Caleb Center, the meeting was reported by the local media. The Panel's final report was issued on December 15, 1999, and it incorporated the ACLU's recommendation concerning the collection of racial data. In fact, the Board of County Commissioners currently is considering legislation to strongly "encourage or require" local police to collect racial data at all stops.
2. Florida Legislature
On June 19, 2001, the Florida Legislature approved a bill requiring sheriffs and municipal law enforcement agencies to incorporate antiracial or antidiscriminatory profiling policies into their policies and practices, on or before January 1, 2002. Antiprofiling policies, as outlined in the state law, shall include traffic stop procedures, community education efforts and policies for the handling of complaints from public.
On September 6, 2001, Attorney General Bob Butterworth announced the appointment of a task force to study the issue of discriminatory profiling by law enforcement agencies, focusing specifically on the interaction between law enforcement officers and motorists. "An individual's race, ethnicity or any similar distinguishing characteristics should not be cause for suspicion of wrongdoing and subject that person to special treatment by the authorities," Butterworth said.
The panel of legislators, law enforcement officials and community leaders will be chaired by Attorney General Bob Butterworth.
3. Other counties in Florida
After receiving several complaints from victims of racial profiling in Palm Beach, the ACLU Palm Beach Chapter began lobbying county officials for a racial profiling data collection study.
The ACLU Lee Chapter is also actively trying to persuade the county to establish anti-racial profiling policies and to begin its own data collection study.
VI. Help Us Arrest the Racism in Your Community
Help us stop the racism! Urge your local government to have their police or sheriffs collect racial data at all stops of citizens. Take action now by writing a letter to your local police/sheriff or by sending a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Click below to link to sample letters:
VII. If You're a Victim of Racial ProfilingCall our hotline at 1-877-6-PROFILE or use our on-line complaint form.
VIII. What to do During a Police Stop
Click on this link to view and print a copy of our folding wallet size "bust cards" that provide you with "do's and don'ts" for a police stop.
