To eliminate racial, religious, and other discriminatory profiling by law enforcement, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill prohibits racial profiling by federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and creates enforceable standards through data collection requirements and grant conditions. It requires law enforcement agencies receiving federal funds to certify anti-profiling policies and participate in complaint or audit programs.
Who Benefits and How
Racial and ethnic minorities benefit from legal protections against discriminatory stops and searches, with the right to bring civil actions for injunctive relief and attorney's fees. Community and civil rights organizations gain input into regulations and access to published data on law enforcement practices. Small and rural law enforcement agencies are guaranteed equitable access to best practices grants.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Law enforcement agencies face significant new compliance burdens including mandatory data collection on all investigatory stops (disaggregated by race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and religion), training requirements, and participation in complaint or audit programs. Agencies that fail to comply risk losing federal grant funding under the Byrne JAG and COPS programs.
Key Provisions
- Prohibits racial profiling with private right of action for enforcement
- Conditions Byrne JAG and COPS grants on anti-profiling certification
- Requires data collection on hit rates for stops/searches by demographic characteristics
- Establishes demonstration projects and best practices grants
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Prohibits racial, religious, and other discriminatory profiling by law enforcement at federal, state, local, and tribal levels, establishes data collection requirements, and conditions federal law enforcement grants on anti-profiling policies.
Key Policy Areas
Criminal Justice, Civil Rights, Law Enforcement, Federal Grants
Primary Purpose
Prohibits racial, religious, and other discriminatory profiling by law enforcement at federal, state, local, and tribal levels, establishes data collection requirements, and conditions federal law enforcement grants on anti-profiling policies.
Policy Domains
Title I - Prohibition of Racial Profiling
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Racial and ethnic minorities
- Civil rights plaintiffs and attorneys
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Law enforcement agencies
- Individual law enforcement officers
- Supervisory personnel
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Title IV - Data Collection
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Researchers and academics
- Civil rights advocacy organizations
- General public
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Law enforcement agencies (data collection burden)
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Title III - Programs to Eliminate Racial Profiling by State and Local Law Enforcement
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Communities subject to discriminatory policing
- Civil rights organizations
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- State and local law enforcement agencies
- Units of local government receiving Byrne JAG/COPS funds
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Van …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Grant recipients not complying with anti-profiling requirements, Individual law enforcement officers, Law enforcement agencies
Positive-direction: Law enforcement agencies in minority communities, Law enforcement officers (identity protection), Small and rural law enforcement agencies, State and local anti-profiling programs, State and local law enforcement agencies
Negative-direction: Grant recipients not complying with anti-profiling requirements, Individual law enforcement officers, Law enforcement agencies, State and local law enforcement agencies seeking federal grants
Attorney General / Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Congress
Positive-direction: Congress
Negative-direction: Attorney General / Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
Communities subject to discriminatory policing, Complainants and witnesses (identity protection), Individuals subject to racial profiling
Civil rights advocacy community, Researchers and civil rights advocates, Transparency advocates seeking officer identification
Positive-direction: Civil rights advocacy community, Researchers and civil rights advocates
Negative-direction: Transparency advocates seeking officer identification
Institutions of higher education (analysis contracts), Researchers and academics studying policing
Civil rights attorneys, Law enforcement training providers
Municipal and state governments (liability exposure), Units of local government receiving Byrne JAG/COPS funds
Technology vendors providing data collection systems
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General of the United States
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General of the United States
- "the_director"
- → Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General of the United States
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General of the United States
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any program funded with Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program or COPS on the Beat program funds
The percentage of stops and searches in which a law enforcement officer finds drugs, a gun, or something else that leads to an arrest, calculated by dividing total searches by searches yielding contraband
The practice of a law enforcement agent or agency relying, to any degree, on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation in selecting individuals to subject to routine or spontaneous investigatory activities
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology