VOTE Yes on Virginia Biased-Based Profiling and Traffic Statistics Reporting Act

[Derechos]

HOUSE BILL NO. 2466

Virginia Biased-Based Profiling and Traffic Statistics Reporting Act

Action Alert! Call and ask your Delegate to vote YES on the Anti-profiling bill HB 2466

This bill might be heard this Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at the House Courts of Justice Sub-Committee: #1 Criminal which meets 1/2 hour after adjournment in House Room C.

Membership: Bell, Robert B. (Chairman), Albo, Cline, Gilbert, Miller, J.H., Villanueva, Armstrong, Watts, Herring

Summary:

This bill is designed to protect all of us who drive, work and live in Virginia. HB 2466 will require police officers to collect certain demographic information at a traffic stop from now until July 1, 2015. As a result of enacting this bill, we will be able to objectively establish whether or not racial profiling is happening in Virginia.

Link to the bill:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+sum+HB2466

- Racial profiling occurs when police target people for humiliating and often frightening interrogations, searches, and detentions based not on any evidence of criminal activity, but on individuals' perceived race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.

- Racial profiling violates the U.S. Constitution by betraying the fundamental American promise of equal protection under the law, and infringing on the 4th Amendment guarantee that all people be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

- According to the US Census bureau, there are 7.7 million people living in Virginia, of which 5.2 million (67%) are White alone, 1.5 million (19%) are African American, and 1.1 million (14%) are of other race or ethnic background. Historically racial profiling has happened to the African-Americans and Hispanics, but racial profiling also affects Native Americans, and increasingly after 9/11, Arabs, Muslims and South Asians.

- In a state where there are so many traffic laws, and there are many simple mistakes that a driver could make in inadvertently (such as failing to give proper signal), having a bill like HB 2466 becomes critical to balance the need for enforcement with the need to avoid bias-based policing.

- Presently when applying for a driver license in Virginia, individuals have to prove that they are legally present in this country. Undocumented people cannot currently obtain a Driver's License in Virginia.

- While some people could argue that it will be expensive to require police to record demographic information, the cost is justified not only to prevent lawsuits that would be even more costly, but also to protect the values upon which our country was founded.

- The bill is designed to assist anybody in Virginia who is interested in establishing whether or not racial profiling and bias-based policing are taking place in Virginia.

- With this bill enacted through July 1, 2015, drivers in Virginia will rest assured that they are not being stopped by a law enforcement officer, using the way a person looks or sounds as the only identifier.

Call your delegates and tell them to vote YES for the anti-profiling bill!