NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Legislation that would require all of Tennessee's law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies to ban racial profiling has passed the Senate.
The measure was approved 28-0 yesterday evening. The bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey of Germantown.
“A few years ago this body passed a law that encouraged law enforcement agencies to adopt policies against racial profiling; many of them have done so. However, this particular legislation would require them to do so.”
Previous efforts to require racial profiling policies have fallen short in the Legislature over the years. Lawmakers in 2005 ordered a comptroller's study on the role of ethnicity in traffic stops by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
That study released two years later found that troopers were more likely to stop, search and arrest Hispanic drivers than whites or blacks.
The house version of the bill is awaiting subcommittee consideration.