H.R. 5727 — ERRPA

This section establishes civil enforcement mechanisms for violations of this title. Specifically, it (1) authorizes the United States or an injured individual to seek declaratory or injunctive relief in state court of general jurisdiction or U.S. district court; (2) permits relief against the employing governmental body, the law enforcement agent who engaged in racial profiling, or the agent's supervisor; (3) treats proof of disparate impact in a jurisdiction's routine or spontaneous investigatory activities on protected individuals (i.e., based on race, color, or national origin) as prima facie evidence of a violation; and (4) allows courts to award reasonable attorney's fees, including expert fees, to prevailing plaintiffs other than the United States in actions against governmental bodies.

This section requires federal law enforcement agencies to maintain policies and procedures designed to eliminate racial profiling and to cease existing practices that permit racial profiling. Such policies and procedures must include (1) a prohibition on racial profiling; (2) training on racial profiling issues as part of federal law enforcement training; (3) collection of data in accordance with Attorney General regulations under section 401; (4) procedures for receiving, investigating, and responding meaningfully to complaints alleging racial profiling by law enforcement agents; and (5) any other policies and procedures the Attorney General determines necessary to eliminate racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies.

This section requires applicants for grants under a covered program—including states, units of local government, and state, local, or tribal law enforcement agencies—to certify that they and any subgrantees maintain policies and procedures to eliminate racial profiling and have ended practices permitting or encouraging it. Such policies must include (1) a prohibition on racial profiling, (2) training on racial profiling issues, (3) data collection per Attorney General regulations under section 401, and (4) participation in an administrative complaint procedure or independent audit program per section 302. The section takes effect 12 months after enactment.

This section directs the Attorney General, not later than six months after enactment and in consultation with stakeholders (including Federal, State, Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies and community, professional, research, and civil rights organizations), to issue regulations governing administrative complaint procedures and independent audit programs to ensure appropriate responses to allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement agents or agencies. The regulations must include guidelines ensuring the fairness, effectiveness, and independence of such procedures and programs. This section further (1) authorizes the Attorney General to withhold, in whole or in part, grant funds from any covered program to noncompliant recipients until they demonstrate compliance with section 301 or these regulations; and (2) requires the Attorney General to provide notice and an opportunity for private parties to submit evidence of a recipient's noncompliance.

This section directs the Attorney General to carry out a two-year demonstration project, through not more than five competitive grants or contracts to law enforcement agencies serving communities with significant concentrations of racial or ethnic minorities that are not already collecting such data voluntarily, to develop and implement data collection programs on hit rates for stops and searches disaggregated by race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and religion. Grantees must (1) develop a data collection tool and report compiled data to the Attorney General and (2) train law enforcement personnel on data collection. The section further requires the Attorney General, not later than three years after enactment, to contract with an institution of higher education to analyze the collected data and authorizes $5 million over two years for the demonstration project and $500,000 for the evaluation.

This section authorizes the Attorney General, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, to make grants to states, local law enforcement agencies, and units of local government to develop and implement best practices, devices, and systems to eliminate racial profiling. Grant funds must support (1) training to prevent racial profiling and encourage respectful public interactions; (2) technology for accurate data collection and analysis; (3) feedback systems and technologies to identify officers or units at risk of racial profiling or misconduct; and (4) administrative complaint procedures or independent auditor programs. The Attorney General must equitably distribute grants to reserve funding for small and rural law enforcement agencies and may require grant applications at such time, in such manner, and with such information as reasonably needed.

This section directs the Attorney General, in consultation with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and community, professional, research, and civil rights organizations, to issue regulations within six months of enactment governing the collection, compilation, analysis, and reporting of data on all routine or spontaneous law enforcement investigatory activities under §§201 and 301 to detect racial profiling. The regulations must (1) require collection of data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and religion (as perceived by the officer), including date, time, and location, with sufficient detail for profiling analysis but excluding personally identifiable information; (2) provide a standardized form for law enforcement agencies to submit data to the DOJ Civil Rights Division and Bureau of Justice Statistics, with agencies required to retain data for at least four years; (3) establish guidelines for comparative benchmarks consistent with best practices; (4) direct the Bureau of Justice Statistics Director to analyze data for statistically significant disparities in stop rates relative to local population, hit rates, and search frequencies by race or ethnicity, and to issue a public report to Congress within three years of enactment and annually thereafter; and (5) include privacy protections limiting data use and access to statutory purposes, requiring use agreements for contractors, and mandating security measures.

This section directs the Bureau of Justice Statistics to provide to Congress and make publicly available, together with each annual report required by section 401, the data collected pursuant to this Act, excluding any personally identifiable information described in section 403.

This section prohibits the release to the public or disclosure to any person of the name or identifying information of a law enforcement officer, complainant, or other individual involved in activities for which data is collected under this Act, including under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. §552). Disclosures are permitted only as necessary to comply with this Act, of information regarding a particular person to that person, or pursuant to litigation.

This section requires the Attorney General to issue regulations, in addition to those required under sections 303 and 401, as necessary to implement the Act. It further requires the Attorney General to submit to Congress, not later than two years after enactment and annually thereafter, reports on racial profiling by law enforcement agencies that include (1) a summary of data collected under sections 201(b)(3) and 301(b)(3) and from other reliable sources; (2) a discussion of findings from the most recent report by the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics under section 401(b)(7); (3) the status of adoption and implementation of policies and procedures by federal law enforcement agencies under section 201 and by state and local agencies under sections 301 and 302; and (4) a description of other policies and procedures to facilitate the elimination of racial profiling.

This section establishes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of the Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and the application of its remaining provisions to any person or circumstance shall not be affected.

This section provides a savings clause stating that nothing in the Act (1) limits legal or administrative remedies under section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983), section 210401 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12601, authorizing the Attorney General to bring pattern-or-practice civil actions against governmental authorities for constitutional violations by law enforcement or juvenile justice officials), the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.), or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.); (2) affects any federal, state, or tribal law applicable to an Indian tribe due to its political status; or (3) waives the sovereign immunity of an Indian tribe without its consent.