Racial Profiling – Oklahoma
"When those sworn to protect and serve the nation discriminate based on race, religion, or ethnicity, it reinforces the idea that human rights and constitutional protections only apply to certain groups of people."
–
James Martin, AIUSA
How Oklahoma Rates in Protection From Racial Profiling
While Oklahoma's racial profiling laws seek to address the problem of police illegally stopping and searching pedestrians as well as motorists, the law's effectiveness is undermined by an anemic definition of the problem. By only banning profiling "solely" based on race, ethnicity, or national origin, it essentially allows police to utilize profiles that include other factors (such as gender or age) in addition to race, ethnicity, or national origin. Accordingly, while it may be illegal in Oklahoma to profile African-Americans, this law does not necesarily ban profiling African-American men or boys. The law also ignores the very real problem of racial profiling against religious minorities, who have become increasingly targeted since September 11, 2001. Moreover, these laws do not include ongoing data collection and thus inhibit the police's and the public's ability to evaluate the extent of the problem and where it most frequently occurs.Protection from racial profiling: Insufficient
Members of Congress supporting the End Racial Profiling Act of 2004: None