US Preparing New Policing Standards to Prevent Racial Profiling: Reports

A guidance, which will institute new standards and robust safeguards to help end racial profiling by law enforcers, will be updated soon, the US Attorney General said.

MOSCOW, December 2 (Sputnik) — US Attorney General Eric Holder said he is planning to announce new federal policing standards to combat the issue of racial profiling in law enforcement, following the wave of protests in Ferguson, St. Louis, CNN reported Tuesday.

“In the coming days I will announce updated Justice Department guidance regarding profiling by federal law enforcement, which will institute rigorous new standards and robust safeguards to help end racial profiling, once and for all," Holder told activists and law enforcement officials in Atlanta on Monday.

The attorney general stressed that the opportunity to deal with "issues that for too long have been ignored" must be seized.

Earlier on Monday, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to allocate $263 million to be directed at efforts to quell Ferguson protests with $75 million of this sum to be spent on police body cameras to record their interaction with civilians.

Mass protests in Ferguson, Missouri, began following the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9.

Last week, the grand jury decided not to bring charges against Wilson. The controversial decision led to a new wave of protests that swept across 180 US cities in 38 states.