On Tuesday, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh issued a nine-page memorandum, “Ending Discriminatory Profiling in Maryland,” which contains new guidelines to restrict racial profiling by law enforcement. This move comes eight months after the Obama administration announced its own rules on racial profiling. Maryland is the first state to adopt such guidelines.
Of the 50 states, only 30 including Maryland currently ban or restrict racial profiling, a report by the NAACP revealed last year.
Larry Harmel, Executive Director of the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association, saw the move as unnecessary due to the laws already in place and insisted that “[Police agencies] don’t tolerate racial profiling.”
