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.
