Monday, September 26, 2005

Religious Profiling In New Jersey?

New Jersey State Police who have been implementing federally mandated reforms to end racial profiling are now at the center of a dispute about religious profiling. The Newark Star-Ledger today reports that State Police have barred agents of the New Jersey Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT) from filing reports in the State Police database, claiming that over 100 reports entered into the Statewide Intelligence Management System (SIMS) appeared to target suspects only because they practiced Islam or had connections to Muslim groups. OCT officials say that the reports were merely incomplete because supervisors did not have time to review them. The Governor's office called a meeting between state agencies to deal with the controversy. While the parties agreed that counter-terrorism agents were not intentionally profiling, they will not be allowed to file reports in SIMS until New Jersey's Attorney General finishes an investigation of the matter.