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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about Racial Profiling
Where can I get more information about racial profiling?
Keep reading! Earlier this year, the ACLU issued a new report documenting the racial profiling of minority motorists, Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation's Highways
In the first comprehensive look at the problem, the report cites police statistics on traffic stops, ACLU lawsuits, government reports and media stories from around the nation to demonstrate 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.
Does the ACLU have recommendations toward ending DWB?
Yes. The 43 page report, Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation's Highways , makes five recommendations to end DWB, including a call for the US 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 crimefighting 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 citybycity traffic stop data on a voluntary basis.
The ACLU also stated that the Justice Department should create an earlywarning 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 drugsniffing dogs can be brought in.
What steps is the ACLU taking right now to combat racial profiling on America's highways?
The ACLU is at the forefront of the movement concerning racial profiling and has taken definitive actions. One of the reasons for launching the campaign against DWB, is that despite mounting evidence, official denial of the problem has persisted. Accordingly, the ACLU has adopted the following three pronged strategy toward eliminating discriminatory police stops:
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Litigation. The ACLU has filed lawsuits in numerous states, including Colorado, 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 issue has gained greater public attention, police departments have started to voluntarily collect such "racial data." For example, the police departments in San Jose and San Diego are now voluntarily collecting such data during police stops.
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Legislation. As noted above, the ACLU is calling for passage of the Federal Traffic Stops Statistics Act. Earlier this year, President Clinton issued an Executive Order requiring federal law enforcement officials to collect data on the race and gender of people they stop to question or arrest. This is an important step toward ending the national disgrace of racial profiling.
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Increasing Public Awareness. The ACLU has increased public awareness through its extensive media coverage. When the ACLU established its nationwide tollfree hotline (1-877-6PROFILE), the number was advertised in public service announcements on radio stations, on highway billboards, and in print media, like Emerge, a magazine popular with African Americans.
How did the practice of racial profiling become so pervasive?
Racial profiling is caused by racism, a problem that has endured 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 search for drugs in vehicles.
The use of racial profiles was bolstered in the 1990s by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions allowing police to use traffic stops as a pretext to "fish" for evidence of wrongdoing.
What if I'm a victim of racial profiling?
Call the ACLU hotline at 1-877-6PROFILE, use our online complaint form, or call your state's ACLU office.
Is the federal government involved in the fight to eradicate racial profiling?
Yes. As noted above, President Clinton issued an Executive Order mandating that federal law enforcement officials collect data as to the race and gender of all people they stop to question or arrest. The ACLU believes that state and local governments should follow the lead of the President and mandate that their law enforcement officials do the same.
Additionally, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has taken a leading role nationally in investigating and seeking remedies for racial profiling practices. However, another arm of the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA"), has been systematically encouraging and training law enforcement to use the tactic of pretextual traffic stops to search for drugs. This DEA tactic is a significant contributor to the racial profiling problem.
