Revised 'End Racial Profiling Act' Reaches Capitol Hill
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - March 1, 2004
Lawmakers in February introduced a new bill to ban racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. The End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) of 2004 is based on a similar bill that won bipartisan support in the 107th Congress.
Sponsored by Representative John Conyers, D-Mich., (
HR 3847) and Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis. (
S 2132), ERPA would ban the practice of profiling, require data collection in order to monitor progress, provide legal options to individuals injured by racial profiling, and provide grants to state and local agencies to enable them to meet the bill's requirements.
The new ERPA differs from the original in that the definition of profiling now conforms to that articulated by the Department of Justice in its June 2003 guidance for federal law enforcement. ERPA also updates the "findings" section of the bill to take account of post-September 11 activities, and adds "religion" to the protected categories.
One day before ERPA was introduced, Senator John Breaux, R-La., and Senator George Voinovich, R-Ohio, also introduced legislation to end racial profiling. While the Breaux/Voinovich legislation (S 2112) contains critical elements, social justice groups say it does not contain some important provisions. For example, S 2112 does not require data collection, which many civil rights organizations argue is an important tool used to identify the prevalence of race-based policing. Further, they say, the Breaux/Voinovich legislation lacks a strong enforcement mechanism to ensure that police departments comply with banning profiling.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has strongly endorsed ERPA.
"The introduction of this bill makes clear that ending racial profiling will remain a top priority in Congress this year," said Wade Henderson, LCCR executive director. "The elimination of the flawed practice of profiling will force law enforcement to put the focus on apprehension of real criminals instead of wasting precious resources on targeting individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin."
Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, said that racial profiling generates resentment among minorities toward law enforcement.
"Racial profiling is bad law enforcement," Narasaki said. "Racial profiling has affected the lives of Asian Americans for years, from the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to today's profiling of Asian American youths as gang members and South Asian Americans at airports. The End Racial Profiling Act would provide a mechanism to actually enforce the President's promise made three years ago to end racial profiling in America."
The NAACP also stated its support for ERPA.
"Three years ago, President Bush promised to end racial profiling in America," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau. "Instead, he has expanded the discredited practice. Profiling was wrong when it was used to illegitimately target African Americans and Latinos in the so-called 'war on drugs' and it is wrong for the Administration to expand its application to Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, and Sikhs in the 'war on terror.'"
