Racial Profiling – Alaska
"Increased national security should not equate to decreased civil liberties. All people are entitled to due process and other basic human rights and constitutional protections."
–
Erin Callahan, AIUSA
How Alaska Rates in Protection From Racial Profiling
Alaska's racial profiling law is empowered by a pragmatic and effective definition. This definition both acknowledges that racial profiling can sometimes be based on an individual's religious appearance (in addition to be being based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin) and that race-based profiles almost always contains multiple other characteristics such as gender, age, or geographic location. However, this law does not include ongoing data collection and thus inhibits the police's and the public's ability to evaluate the extent of the problem and where it most frequently occurs. Furthermore, this law fails to address racial profiling during pedestrian stops by police. Pedestrian stops are a very common form of racial profiling in urban environments such as Anchorage. The law also does not give the public the right to go into court and ask a judge to order the police to stop racially profiling area residents and motorists.Protection from racial profiling: Insufficient
Members of Congress supporting the End Racial Profiling Act of 2004: None