The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act was reintroduced in the Senate as part of the Protecting Civil Rights for All Americans Act (S. 19) on January 22, 2001. The Act's intent is to discourage law enforcement officers from using race as a primary factor in deciding to institute a car search. The Act also seeks to collect statistical data on the nature and extent of the problem of racial profiling in traffic stops by authorizing the Attorney General to conduct a study of stops for routine traffic violations by law enforcement officers. The study would include such factors as the race and ethnicity of the individual stopped; the alleged traffic infraction that led to the stop; whether a search was instituted as a result of the stop; and whether any warning or citation was issued, or any arrest made, as a result of the stop or search.

Primary opposition to this bill comes from the National Association of Police Organizations, who argue that there is no pressing need for such a study, and that both motorists and police officers would resent such data collection.

Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced the Racial Profiling Prohibition Act of 2001 (H.R. 965) on March 8, 2001. This bill would require States to adopt and enforce standards that prohibit the use of racial profiling in the enforcement of State laws regulating the use of highways that receive federal aid. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where it awaits further action.

The Bush Administration has not yet taken a position on these proposals. On February 28, 2001, however, President Bush directed the Attorney General "to review the use by Federal law enforcement authorities of race as a factor in conducting stops, searches, and other investigative procedures." The next day Attorney General Ashcroft announced his intention to work with Congressional leaders to "produce a legislative product which will help us achieve what the president has indicated to us, especially as it relates to the development of data regarding state and local officials." Attorney General Ashcroft further stated: "I believe that racial profiling is an unconstitutional deprivation of equal protection under our Constitution."