The Bush administration banned federal law enforcement officers from racial profiling in routine police work Tuesday but said agents may use race and ethnicity to identify suspected terrorists.
A 10-page guidance drafted by the Justice Department was approved by President Bush and sent to all federal law enforcement agencies. It does not apply to state and local police. Ralph Boyd, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the Bush administration is the first to issue a formal policy on racial profiling. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, local and state police were accused of racial profiling far more often than federal agents. But that changed after hundreds of Middle Eastern men were detained in the Sept. 11 probe. Full Story