"Racial profiling is a shame on our society that must be stopped. It is unjust. It is un-American," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D. Wis., chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that held an Aug. 2 hearing on the proposal.

The bill would ban racial profiling, allow the Justice Department or individuals to sue seeking injunctions and require law enforcement agencies to collect data on stops.

Racial profiling is when law enforcement agencies stop people solely because of their race.

Police departments that do not sufficiently address racial profiling would lose part of their annual federal funds. For larger departments, that means hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Departments that lead the way in developing procedures and technologies for monitoring racial profiling would be eligible for "best practices" grants.

Senator Jon Corzine, D-N.J., called the bill an effective but measured response to a national problem.
"This bill is not about blaming law enforcement, and it not designed to prevent law enforcement from doing its job," said Corzine, who helped write the legislation. " Effective law enforcement must be built on the public trust and community confidence. Our bill will go a long way toward restoring that trust."

Former U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he hoped police departments would act on their own to address racial profiling.

"However, if federal and state agencies lag in the adoption of these polices, then legislation will be required," Kelly said. "There is simply no place for racial profiling in American law enforcement."

Rep. John Conyers, who introduced the House version of the bill, said most law enforcers act "professionally and without bias." But, the Michigan Democrat added, "We as a nation should not tolerate discrimination by a small minority of police officials."

GOP Sens. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah said they could not support the current bill. "I am afraid this bill would handcuff the vast majority of police on the federal and state levels who treat all citizens fairly and equally," Thurmond said.

Hatch said parts of the legislation are "unnecessarily controversial…unjustifiably punitive to state and local authorities, and above all, they are premature."

Hatch suggested more data collection and study, saying Congress needs to first "focus on identifying the scope of the problem."

While two police officials said racial profiling was wrong, they said it was not widespread and federal legislation was not needed.

"Racial profiling, while it's a problem in one or two or three or four or five or 10 or 50 agencies in our country, it's a very, very small problem," said Reuben Greenberg, the police chief in Charleston, S.C.