Criminal Law Reform ›

Ending Abusive and Biased Police Encounters

Police in the United States are empowered to detain, search, and interrogate people walking the streets or driving in cars as a tool for criminal investigations, without suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. And police engage in invasive, widespread, and often violent pedestrian and traffic stops against primarily Black, Latine, and Indigenous people, causing harm to the people and communities most targeted.

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What you need to know

Investigations, lawsuits, and studies have shown time and again that police unfairly target people for stops and searches based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Because of decisions like Whren v. U.S. — which sanctioned pretextual traffic stops — state and federal courts bear significant responsibility for the proliferation of racial profiling in police stops and for the degradation of protections against oppressive stops by police.
Yet there is good news. State courts are increasingly departing from federal doctrines that enable police abuse in stops, even in regions that are not ordinarily associated with progressive advancements in policing. In recent years, numerous federal judges across the country have expressed concern that federal doctrine on police stops leads to racial profiling. This suggests the beginning of a groundswell that we might harness toward bold change.
CLRP has developed a cohesive national strategy to harness that groundswell, leveraging state and federal court litigation to usher an end to abusive and biased police stops. Combined with legislative changes that better constrain police discretion, this strategy aims to buttress the rights of all people to be free from unfair and unreasonable police intrusions, regardless of race.

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What’s At Stake

The right to go about life free from police overreach and violence should not depend on the color of a person’s skin. By leveraging state and federal courts in combination with legislative advocacy, CLRP is working to better protect individual rights in investigative police encounters and help usher an end to racial profiling and racially biased policing.

The right to go about life free from police overreach and violence should not depend on the color of a person’s skin. By leveraging state and federal courts in combination with legislative advocacy, CLRP is working to better protect individual rights in investigative police encounters and help usher an end to racial profiling and racially biased policing.
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