[JURIST] California Governor Jerry Brown [official profile], on Saturday signed [press release] a new bill [text] that is meant to protect minorities from racial profiling and excessive use of force by police. The “Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015” was introduced by Assembly Member Shirley Weber [official profile] requires “[e]ach state and local agency that employs peace officers [to] annually report to the Attorney General data on all stops conducted by that agency’s peace officers for the preceding calendar year.” It prescribes requirements for the reporting and data collection and also prescribes new training plans for officers including “adequate instruction on racial, identity, and cultural diversity in order to foster mutual respect and cooperation between law enforcement and members of all racial, identity, and cultural groups.” Lt. Steve James [official profile], president of the Long Beach Police Officers Assn., however, called the bill a “[t]errible piece of legislation” [LAT report] in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. He believes that the bill will encourage bureaucracy and increase the time officers spend filling out paperwork without having any positive impact.

The use of racial profiling by law enforcement officials has been an ongoing topic of discussion in the US. In August Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced [JURIST report] plans to issue new guidelines significantly limiting the use of racial profiling in policing as an effort to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In April the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that the Maricopa County Sherrif’s Office and, specifically, Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, engaged in practices of racial profiling in conducting traffic stops [JURIST report]. Last year the UN Committee Against Torture urged the US [report, PDF] to open investigations [JURIST report] into all cases of police brutality and excessive use of force by police officers. The committee expressed concern over the use of force against certain people and the use of “racial profiling by police and immigration offices,” among other tactics used by law enforcement. In 2013 the American Civil Liberties Union accused [press release] governmental surveillance centers of invasion of privacy and reliance on racial and religious profiling in their Suspicious Activity Reports urging [letter, PDF] the centers to adopt stricter standards of reporting [JURIST report].