The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) appears to be occupied with various tasks such as appointing special councils, identifying individuals involved in seditious conspiracies, refraining from indicting any member of the Biden family, and classifying parents who oppose leftist school programs as ‘terror threats.’ However, they have managed to find the time to develop a set of new guidelines for crime investigations in the name of combating discrimination.
The newly proposed regulations aim to prohibit law enforcement from utilizing statistics or metrics that are associated with what they refer to as ‘protected characteristics.’ These characteristics include “facially neutral factors as a proxy,” which means that no general description of a suspect should include references to race or perpetuate stereotypes.
Under the new proposal, it is required that all information provided be exclusively focused on the individual being sought. The regulation explicitly forbids any mention, to any extent, of sexual orientation, nationality, religion, gender identity, or even disability.
Additionally, the regulation addresses the issue of “high crime areas” and states that law enforcement cannot make generalizations based on this factor as it may perpetuate implicit biases and lead to excessive law enforcement presence. The only circumstance where an exception can be made is if a specific individual with protected characteristics can be located in a precise location within a specific time frame.
The proposed rules would prevent officers from utilizing any previous crime statistics regarding any community in order to draw conclusions that might exhibit bias or discrimination. This means that an officer’s personal experiences with certain individuals in specific areas or lifestyles should not be taken into consideration. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), their own crime statistics and other sources are considered “inherently biased and unreliable.” Therefore, if utilized, these statistics are likely to contribute to discrimination against protected groups.
Traditionally, crime research indicates that a majority of crimes are committed by a small number of repeat offenders who often reside in particular locations. However, under the new rules, data of this nature may not be collected, used, or shared.
