BACKGROUND ON “DRIVING WHILE BLACK” LAWSUIT

In 1993, Robert Wilkins and members of his family filed a lawsuit, represented by the ACLU, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against the Maryland State Police alleging that they were the victims of “racial profiling,” or the practice of stopping motorists and making decisions regarding searches on the basis of race, an “offense” now better known as “Driving While Black.” Documents showed that MSP illegally targeted African-American motorists for stops and searches along Maryland’s highways.  In 1995, the parties entered into a Settlement Agreement under which MSP, among other things, agreed to collect data on traffic stops and searches and take measures to prevent racial profiling.  Two years later, the federal court overseeing the case ruled that MSP was continuing to target non-white motorists for traffic stops and searches, in violation of the Wilkins agreement.

In 1998, based on accumulated evidence showing a continuing pattern and practice of discrimination by MSP's troopers, the ACLU, on behalf of the Maryland NAACP and several individual plaintiffs, filed another lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that MSP's troopers were continuing to engage in racial profiling. The parties ultimately agreed to resolve some of the litigation by entering into a Consent Decree in 2003 that obligates MSP to take a number of steps to address concerns raised in the lawsuit, including providing the Maryland NAACP with quarterly reports containing detailed information on the number, nature, location and disposition of complaints alleging racial profiling.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit seeking damages and justice for the individual plaintiffs continued, and today has been finally resolved.

CONTACT US | SEARCH | PRIVACY POLICY