Politics

Ashcroft Probes Profiling

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 1, 2001 / 9:24 PM EST / CBS

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday he would issue a directive to gather more data about "racial profiling" practices by federal law enforcement agencies and aim to "do what's necessary to correct any such abuse."

The move came two days after President Bush, in an address to Congress, said he had ordered Ashcroft to explore the problem and recommend ways to end it.

Civil rights organizations have complained that members of minority groups have been unfairly singled out and targeted by many police departments for searches and stops, constituting undeserved harassment.

At a Justice Department news conference, Ashcroft emphasized that he and Mr. Bush strongly opposed racial profiling — the use of race as a factor by police in conducting stops, searches and other investigative procedures — but offered little concrete action now beyond more study.

"There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies and we need to find out what they're doing, how they're handling allegations, what they do by way of training, if they find items that merit discipline, (and) what kind of discipline is imposed," he said.

Ashcroft also called on Congress to approve quickly legislation authorizing the Justice Department to study traffic stop data.

Ashcroft said that a bill introduced in the last Congress by Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. would be a good place to start. As he envisions it, the bill would authorize the Justice Department to conduct a study of traffic stop data that is already being voluntarily collected by law enforcement agencies around the country.

If Congress did not act within six months, Ashcroft said he would then launch a study on his own of available data.

Asked how long it would take to make recommendations on ending racial profiling, Ashcroft said he did not know for sure, but hoped it would be within this year. "It's my view that we should act quickly," he said.

Ashcroft's nomination as Mr. Bush's attorney general was opposed by many civil rights leaders and Democrats in Congress on the grounds that he was insensitive on racial issues.

Ashcroft rejected the view by some black members of Congress that the racial profiling proposal represented an attempt by mollify minorities who have opposed Ashcroft and Mr. Bush in the past.

"This is a matter of serious concern to me. And I know from both public utterances of the president and private statements that he's made to me that this is a matter of very serious concern to the president," said Ashcroft, a former senator from Missouri.

Ashcroft said that when he was in the Senate, he heard anecdotal evidence of the problem and said, "I have long believed that to treat people solely on the basis of their race was a violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." He called it a tragedy "with real human consequences."

The attorny general said he had discussed this issue with Mr. Bush not long after his selection to head the Justice Department and said "the president of the United States elevated this issue into the consciousness" of Americans.