Internal papers reportedly reveal that the proposed anti-discrimination policy by the Justice Department would restrict the capacity of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and other federal law enforcement personnel to penetrate terrorist organizations and thwart possible terrorist threats.
The documents reveal that the DOJ’s new anti-discrimination policy would increase limitations on the use of protected traits in law enforcement operations, even when doing so could otherwise be legal.
The Justice Department is expanding the list of protected traits, which might make it harder for FBI agents to combat international terrorist groups.
The DOJ’s anti-discrimination guidelines do not apply to suspect-specific information that meets a certain set of requirements.
It is prohibited and does not meet the requirements for an exemption to use sources of a particular ethnicity to learn about a terrorist organization.
The documents provide an illustration to show that FBI agents and other federal law enforcement officers will not be permitted to take ethnicity into account when locating sources with information on overseas terrorist organizations.
Additionally, even in circumstances when an agent has received information about a bomb threat and has to act fast to obtain more information to prevent the assault, police are not permitted to depend on generic stereotypes.
The records reveal that an agent would only be permitted to investigate suspects who exhibit protected traits if they were the subject of particular knowledge on the suspect’s appearance.
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