WASHINGTON, December 9 (Sputnik) – The US Department of Justice (DOJ) must pass legislation, ending racial profiling across all law enforcement agencies, a statement by Sen. Ben Cardin issued on Tuesday said.
"Congress must act to make a permanent ban on discriminatory profiling and hold police accountable for engaging in discriminatory profiling, by passing the End Racial Profiling Act," the Democratic Senator of Maryland said on the Senate floor as quoted in the statement.
The statement comes after the DOJ unveiled on Monday a new set of strict guidelines, prohibiting federal law enforcement officers from acting on the belief that characteristics including race, gender and religious affiliation make a suspect a higher risk.
The senator argued that DOJ's policy guidelines were insufficient.
"I am wholly disappointed that this updated guidance [DOJ racial profiling policy] does not extend to state and local law enforcement," the Democratic Senator of Maryland said on the Senate floor as quoted by the statement.
The DOJ's policy does not apply to key federal agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection, Cardin said.
"Only Congress can close these harmful loopholes for good and dissolve some of the mistrust of law enforcement in our minority communities," Cardin said. "DOJ has moved in the right direction but this new guidance is truly a missed opportunity."
The implementation of the new DOJ policy follows a series of race-related police brutality cases from Missouri, to New York, Arizona and Ohio, where unarmed African-American men were killed by white police officers, which caused massive protests around the United States.
