Cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act
Recipient: U.S. Senate
View the PDF of this letter here.
Dear Senator:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the 156 undersigned organizations, we urge you to cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 (ERPA), S.1038. Passage of this bill is needed to put an end to racial profiling by law enforcement officials and to ensure that individuals are not prejudicially stopped, investigated, arrested, or detained based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Policies primarily designed to impact certain groups are ineffective and often result in the destruction of civil liberties for everyone.
ERPA would establish a prohibition on racial profiling, enforceable by declaratory or injunctive relief. The legislation would mandate training for federal law enforcement officials on racial profiling issues. As a condition of receiving federal funding, state, local, and Indian tribal law enforcement agencies would be required to collect data on both routine and spontaneous investigatory activities. The Department of Justice would be authorized to provide grants to state and local law enforcement agencies for the development and implementation of best policing practices, such as early warning systems, technology integration, and other management protocols that discourage profiling. Lastly, this important legislation would require the Attorney General to issue periodic reports to Congress assessing the nature of any ongoing racial profiling.
Racial profiling involves the unwarranted screening of certain groups of people, assumed by the police and other law enforcement agents to be predisposed to criminal behavior. Multiple studies have proven that racial profiling results in the misallocation of law enforcement resources and therefore a failure to identify actual crimes that are planned and committed. By relying on stereotypes rather than proven investigative procedures, law enforcement agencies and officials needlessly harm innocent people.
As is evident by recent events across the nation, racial profiling is a pervasive and harmful practice that negatively impacts both individuals and communities. Current federal law enforcement guidance and state laws provide incomplete solutions to the pervasive nationwide problem of racial profiling. Racial profiling results in a loss of trust and confidence in local, state, and federal law enforcement. Although most individuals are taught from an early age that the role of law enforcement is to fairly defend and guard communities from people who want to cause harm to others, this fundamental message is often contradicted when these same defenders are seen as unnecessarily and unjustifiably harassing innocent citizens. Criminal investigations are flawed and hindered because people and communities impacted by these stereotypes are less likely to cooperate with law enforcement agencies they have grown to mistrust. We can begin to reestablish trust in law enforcement if we act now.
Your support for the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 is critical to its passage. We urge you to cosponsor this vital legislation, which will ensure that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from impermissibly considering race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in carrying out law enforcement activities. To become a cosponsor, please contact Sarenka Smith in Senator Cardin’s office at [email protected] or (202) 224-4524. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lexer Quamie at (202) 466-3648 or Nancy Zirkin at (202) 263-2880. Thank you for your valued consideration of this critical legislation.
Sincerely,
National Organizations
9to5
A. Philip Randolph Institute
African American Ministers in Action
American Civil Liberties Union
American Humanist Association
American Probation and Parole Association
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Arab American Family Support Center
Arab American Institute
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – ALC
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Blacks in Law Enforcement in America
Break the Cycle
Breakthrough
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law
Campaign for Community Change
Campaign for Youth Justice
Center for National Security Studies
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Council on Illicit Drugs of the National Association for Public Health Policy
Dēmos
Disciples Justice Action Network
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Drug Policy Alliance
Equal Justice Society
Fair Immigration Reform Movement
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Watch
Institute Justice Team, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD)
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Labor Committee
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
League of United Latin American Citizens
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Muslim Advocates
Muslim Legal Fund of America
Muslim Public Affairs Council
NAACP
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
National Action Network
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.
National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery
National Alliance of Faith and Justice
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Justice Coalition
National Black Law Students Association
National Black Police Association
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Congress of American Indians
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of La Raza
National Education Association
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund
National Guestworker Alliance
National Immigration Law Center
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC)
National Organization of Black Women in Law Enforcement
National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault
National Urban League Policy Institute
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
North American South Asian Bar Association
Open Society Policy Center
Organization of Chinese Americans
Pax Christi USA: National Catholic Peace Movement
PFLAG National
PolicyLink
Prison Policy Initiative
Rights Working Group
Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN)
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Sikh Coalition
Sojourners
South Asian Americans Leading Together
South Asian Network
South Asian Resource Action Center
StoptheDrugWar.org
Streetwise and Safe (SAS)
The Legal Action Center
The Real Cost of Prisons Project
The Sentencing Project
Treatment Communities of America
U.S. Human Rights Network
Union for Reform Judaism
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
UNITED SIKHS
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual
State and Local Organizations
9to5 Atlanta Working Women (Georgia)
9to5 Bay Area (California)
9to5 Colorado (Colorado)
9to5 Los Angeles (California)
9to5 Milwaukee (Wisconsin)
A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) (California)
Adhikaar (New York)
Advocare, Inc. (Ohio)
Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (Ohio)
Alianza Mexicana (TX)
Arab American Action Network (Illinois)
Arab American Association of New York (State/local version of NNAAC)
Arab-American Family Support Center (New York)
Asian Law Alliance
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
California Immigrant Policy Center
CASA de Maryland (Maryland)
Casa Esperanza (New Jersey)
CAUSA – Oregon’s Immigrant Rights Organization (Oregon)
Center for Constitutional Rights (New York)
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions (New York)
Colorado Progressive Coalition
Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians, Inc. (Maryland)
Desis Rising Up and Moving (New York)
Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii (Hawaii)
Drug Policy Forum of Texas (Texas)
DRUM- South Asian Organizing Center (New York)
Florida Immigrant Coalition (Florida)
Healing Communities Prison Ministry and Reentry Project (Pennsylvania)
Houston United/Unido
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Indo-American Center (Illinois)
Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (Illinois)
Korean Resource Center (California)
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (California)
Legal Voice (Washington)
Lowcountry Immigration Coalition (Hilton Head/Bluffton, SC)
Maryland CURE – Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (Maryland)
National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery, Delaware Chapter (Delaware)
Nebraska Appleseed (Nebraska)
North Carolina Immigrant Rights Project
Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (Oregon)
Perspectives, Inc. (Minnesota)
Providence Youth Student Movement (Rhode Island)
Public Justice Center (Maryland)
Rights for All People (Colorado)
Safe Streets Arts Foundation (Washington, DC)
Sahara of South Florida, Inc. (Florida)
Satrang (California)
Sneha, Inc. (Connecticut)
South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI) (Chicago)
South Asian Bar Association of Northern California (California)
South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center
St. Leonard’s Ministries (Illinois)