Baltimore and Other Recent Police Controversies Prompt Norton to Introduce Bill to Reestablish Popular Grant Program to Combat Racial Profiling

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that when the House returns from recess next week she will introduce the Racial Profiling Prevention Act to reestablish a federal grant program for states that desire to develop racial profiling laws, collect and maintain data on traffic stops, design programs to reduce racial profiling, and train law enforcement officers. Norton got the grant program included in the federal surface transportation authorization bill that was signed into law in 2005 (the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)). Nearly half of the states participated in the grant program for multiple years before SAFETEA-LU's funding expired in 2011.

"In the wake of racial profiling demonstrations and policing issues across the country, Congress must act where it can to address a crisis that continues to grow," Norton said. "We know that the states found the grants to prevent racial profiling useful because of the strong demand and competition for the grants. My bill does not add costs to the surface transportation bill, but simply provides a way to use existing grant funds that the states have found desirable. In addition, my bill does not compel any states to participate, but for those that choose to participate, it provides essential funding at a time when states are facing a major need."

Norton has taken several significant steps this Congress to address racial profiling. After hosting a Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys roundtable with her co-chair, Representative Danny Davis (D-IL), focusing on President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing report, Norton introduced a bill to establish a grant program from existing Department of Justice (DOJ) funds for local Task Forces on 21st Century Policing, modeled after the President's Task Force report. Because policing occurs primarily at the local and state levels, DOJ grants would encourage local police departments, local officials, and local communities to craft and tailor their own solutions for racial profiling and other inappropriate policing practices, like those exposed by the DOJ's investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. However, due to the continued occurrence of police shootings of African Americans, Norton has also sent a letter to the DOJ requesting that it take immediate administrative action to establish the task force grant program. In addition, earlier this month, Norton wrote U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx requesting regulations or appropriate action to implement her anti-racial-profiling amendment passed by the House and signed into law as part of the fiscal year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill. That amendment, which passed unanimously by voice vote, prohibits states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics.