Are Illegal Police Quotas Still Affecting American Citizens?

Sirens blazing as the man waits in the car with palpitating hands on the wheel as the authority in blue with sunglasses walks closer and closer. Vehemently knocking on the window; the man comes to see that a policeman accuses him of speeding. Getting a ticket for speeding happens to many Americans every day, but one may not know that there exists a secret police system operating in the background that demand these tickets, masked under mollified euphemisms to appear gentle. Quotas, and the synonyms that follow it, determine a number of arrests and citations a police officer needs to make. However, quotas impose necessities where it’s not needed, causing police officers to create false violations in order to meet their quantities by seeking

Police officers have the authority to use discretion at work. Some officers use discretion in ways that benefit citizens, and other officers choose to use limited to no discretion. Take officers that right tickets, some officers write tickets on

Rather you agree or disagree with having a speed limit; or even obeying the speed limit. It is our morally duty to accept the fact that lawmakers created speed limits in the citizens’ best interest to protect drivers for minor and fatal car accidents. Some citizens still question, if in fact the government claims to set speed limits are really for the public well-being, or simply to make a quick profit. Of course, one thing we can

     Imagine being a police officer doing your daily routine job. You are in a patrol car on the highway, watching the cars and trucks drive by. You are also looking for speeders to warn them to be more careful and maybe you’ll ticket them. It has been a very boring day for you, since you have only been called on your radio once, and it was for an accident (fender bender). Almost at the end of your shift, a blue car drives by going ninety miles an hour, but you know the speed limit is only fifty-five miles an hour. You pull the patrol car out of the gravel area that you had been sitting in and you start to follow the car. You put your lights on and catch up to them. After a few minutes you pull the person over.

Police officers are given a lot of power because it is needed to help protect citizens and the community. However, police often abuse their power by the over use of force, corruption, sexual misconduct, bias based policing, and failure to maintain police ethics. (Peak, 2011)

Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of police officers actually serve their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic some

Law enforcement officials often confront situations where it’s an almost certainty that illegal activities are taking place despite not having sufficient resources to investigate every possible perpetrator. Research on race and vehicle stops by police show that African American drivers are disproportionately stopped in traffic by police for driving violations (Kowalski & Lundman, 2007). The reason is because law enforcement officials use characterizations or

Racial profiling and traffic stops are always a hot debate in our country. Recently, race issues with the police have gotten even hotter with the situations in Ferguson and New York. No matter where a person stands on the issue, the numbers that suggest racial profiling and traffic stops are difficult to justify. Racial profiling is described as the use of race as a key factor in police decisions to stop and interrogate citizens (Weitzer & Tuch, p. 435, 2006). A study was done in Baltimore, Maryland where 533 drivers were stopped on I-95, and more than half of the people stopped were minorities. Likewise, 63% of people that were asked to step out of their

Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic

Although this study’s emphasis is on racial profiling in traffic stops, it is but one of many avenues of legal and or extralegal social control that have been shown historical bias towards blacks and racial minorities in the U.S.

In an analysis on racial profiling, criminologist Shaun Gabbidon discusses the racist practices of the Maryland State Police and how the department was able to reduce profiling by changing its policies. He explains, “The policy targeted Black drivers who were felt to provide ‘the biggest bang for their buck’. As a result of the suit, in 1993, the Maryland State Police was required to track its traffic stops” (Gabbidon). This requirement produced shocking data which revealed that officers could determine the race of drivers just by their vehicles or driving patterns and that officers refrained from pulling over many white traffic law violators who should have been stopped. For instance, it is possible for police officers to distinguish what neighborhood a driver is from based on the parking permit stickers affixed to their cars. If someone is from a predominantly minority neighborhood, then it is clearly more likely that they belong to a minority race. Additionally, in regards to driving patterns, they found that it is more likely for a Black person to not wear their seatbelt than a White person and it is more likely for a White person to speed than a Black person. As a result, to pull over more Black drivers, there may be greater emphasis put on pulling over drivers who are not

Sadly, African Americans are not the only minority who fall as a victim to unfair stops. Hispanics are constantly being stopped at traffic stops, due to the fact they are not caucasian. In New York, eighty seven percent of the traffic stops were Hispanic or African American (Jost 7). David Floyd was stopped by a New York police officer on his way home for no reason, but simply because Floyd wasn’t white. The officer made an assumption, and pulled Floyd over, even though nothing he was doing was against the law (“Racial Profiling” 1). Police officers and other government officials are becoming known to make assumptions at traffic stops based on the drivers race. While driving through a traffic stop, African Americans and other minorities freedom is in jeopardy.

In the article by Jim Leitzel, he discusses the policing that has been done. In the beginning, he praises the police system for keeping crime rates low in the United States, but that praise is ultimately tarnished from their role of race. He gives examples of certain situations that have happened to put his point across; one example is in 1997, when the police tortured a Haitian immigrant for no specific reason. He also brings up the question if disparities exist and if it is implemented in policing today. There are disparities in policing since it does indicate criminal profiling (Leitzel). Leitzel questions the police, if they are private citizens of their country shouldn’t they act as a good citizen? Sadly, they do not, most cops judge

So if you want to cut back the accusations of racial profiling, get rid of your ticket quotas. Reasoning for this because law enforcement communities have to meet a certain quota each month and if they don’t they get in trouble with their boss and their boss gets in trouble with their boss. Bosses are yelling at their employees and their employees take it out innocent people sometimes because they can’t talk to their boss any kind of way. For example if an white officer name is Jared and the black police chief whose name is Brian are talking, now Brian is yelling and screaming at Jared telling him that he has to meet his quota this month or he’ll be doing paper work for the next 4 months. Jared is frustrated because doesn’t want to do paper for the next four months so since he can’t scream or yell back to Brain he’ll go out and pull over some white and some black people but he’ll only give tickets to the black people that he’s pulls over. There are some states trying to ban this ticket quota such as Florida passing a “waldo bill” also known as ticket

Racial profiling has been a very monumental issue from the past few years. Race and orientation are the dominant characteristics the authorities look when captivating in this category of profiling. The incontrovertible pattern of race-based on the stops from the police is a problem that millions of African-American and Latino-American motorist encounter regularly on this nation's highway. This play on words DWI (Driving while Intoxicated) refers to the employed police practice of using an traffic violations as a pretext to stop black or Hispanic. The police assume that they are involved in a criminal activity unrelated to the driving. These policemen have no right or legal cause to carry stops besides the enforcing a traffic bylaw.