U.S. Senate passes motorcyclist anti-profiling resolution
The U.S. Senate adopted a resolution on Tuesday to promote awareness of motorcyclist profiling and encouraging collaboration and communication with the motorcycling community and law enforcement officials to prevent instances of profiling.
With the recent anti-bikie legislation and ongoing direct harassment and stalking by police that motorcyclists face in Australia, could you ever see this happening here..? Not likely…
Senate Resolution 154 also urges state law enforcement officials to condemn motorcyclist profiling in their policies and training materials. Senate resolutions do not have the force of law to effectively ban all such profiling but is a good step in the right direction.
As adopted, the resolution recognised the significant increase in motorcycle registrations throughout America over the past 20 years, and pointed out that half of motorcyclists surveyed believe they have been profiled by law enforcement at least once. The resolution also acknowledges that motorcyclist profiling occurs across the nation.
Profiling means the illegal use of the fact that a person rides a motorcycle or wears motorcycle-related apparel as a factor when law enforcement officers decide to stop and question, take enforcement action, arrest or search a person or vehicle with or without a legal basis.
“In 2015, Congress wisely acted to ban federal highway funding for motorcycle-only checkpoints, recognizing that federal funds are better spent on promoting highway safety for all vehicles and drivers,” said AMA Vice President of Government Relations Wayne Allard. “Now, the Senate has taken a big step further to help end the discriminatory and ineffective practice of profiling motorcyclists.”
In January 2017, the American Motorcyclist Association’s Board of Directors adopted a formal position statement on motorcyclist profiling and has continued to recommend law enforcement and highway officials fto ocus their efforts on encouraging highway safety in ways that make America’s roads safer for everyone.
