Drug Courier Profiles

Facts: This case consists of Hereford a criminal informant who gets information of narcotic laws to Officer Marsh; a federal narcotic agent with 29 years on the job. Hereford had been feeding Marsh information for close to 6 months and that information was accurate and reliable. In the early days of September 1956, Hereford told Officer Marsh that the defendant James Draper was distributing illegal narcotics throughout Denver. Several days later, Hereford told Marsh that in the days before Draper went to Chicago and set to return with several ounces of heroin. Along with the information given Hereford gave a physical description of Draper, which included his age, weight, race, and clothes that he had

The term profiling is defined as “the use of personal characteristics or behavior patterns to make a generalization about a person”; therefore, this refers to gender profiling. The second part of the definition also states the “use of these characteristics to determine whether a person may be engaged in illegal activity” refers to what is called racial profiling (Dictionary.com, n.d.). Profiling has been used within in law enforcement for a number of years, as it provides informational analysis for solving crimes, but unfortunately over time, profiling has become the focus of race and ethnicity. The intent of profiling was designed as a legitimate tool for law enforcement to utilize for positive reasons, but to understand why profiling has been given such a negative outlook; it must be understood that profiling can either be proactive or reactive in its use.

Racial profiling remains a dormant issue in the United States. It is the act of the authority, mostly, police officers linking minority status to criminal behaviour (Glover, 2007). Several police officers in the United States target specific groups because they don’t display characteristics of typical Caucasian individuals (Glover, 2007). To put history into context, before 9/11, not many police officers profiled individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds but after the attack, there was an increase in racial profiling (Harris, 2006). A racial profiling method that became prevalent in the 1980s in the United States was administered by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. Operation Pipeline was a program that they launched to help police officers catch drug traffickers (Harris, 2006). In a video, they taught police officers to look for clues that would help them recognize criminals. It was noticed that police officers made a majority of stops to people with Hispanic last names (Harris, 2006). Marshall Frank, a former police officer was asked what police officers should do if they saw an African man driving around a white community. Frank responded by stating that the police officers should stop the vehicle and investigate the reason to why he was there even if there was no occurrence of a crime (Harris, 2006).

One of the main examples of racial profiling is called DWB (Driving While Black). This is a term starting to show itself a lot in cases of racial profiling. This name is meant to be a shot at he already known DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). In today?fs society, the perception is that most drug traffickers are minorities. This is very untrue. Racial profiling is based on the premise that minorities commit most drug offenses. Because police look for drugs primarily among African Americans and Latinos, they find an uneven number of them actually in possession of contraband. Therefore, these people are arrested, reinforcing the idea that drug trafficking is primarily a Latino or African American thing. At the same time, white drivers receive far less police attention;

Profiling is something that every person has or will do at some point in their life; some may even profile without even realizing it. There are various forms of profiling which will be discussed, along with the history behind profiling and how it has been used successfully by Law Enforcement in several areas as a field on investigation (Douglass, Ressler &Burgess, 1986). Profiling has various positives along with negatives, and these are accepted by Satzewich and Shaffir (2009) who suggest that racial profiling is best understood in the context of a police subculture where these police officer intergrade profiling as part of their every day work routine. Profiling is a big factor in the daily work of every Law Enforcement Officer and it cannot be avoided (Becker, 2004). For the most part profiling is seen as part of an officers daily investigative tools, from border searches, to pulling vehicles over for traffic citations the officers will use his or her discretion on those who arouse their suspicion (Rose, 2002). Therefore, this paper will analyze the overall effectiveness of profiling and how it either proves to successfully reduce crime or not (Rose, 2002).

Racial profiling, stereotyping, and different styles of policing has led to the disproportionate targeting of minorities by law enforcement agencies. Warren et al. (2006) notes that law enforcement often use two forms of racial profiling. One is defined by Warren et al. (2006) as out of place profiling. This particular form of racial profiling targets an individual if they do not match the general make up of a certain community. Another method of racial profiling Warren et al. (2006) explains is drug interdiction profiles, which encourage officers to target drug traffickers using their racial background to make traffic stops and search their vehicles for contraband. Furthermore, Terrill and Reisig (2003) findings

Furthermore, after the incident of September 11th, 2001, people of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian background have been profiled by airline personnel, the local police, and federal law enforcement. Also, ever since the dawn of the war on drugs in the 1980’s, the police have been targeting mostly the black and Latino drivers for drugs. The police do racial profiling as to lower the acts of crime, but what they do not realize is that crime is not always done by specific racial groups. As for the targeting only the black and Latinos for drugs, many studies at traffic stops have shown that white drivers were most likely to possess drugs rather than their African American and Hispanic counterparts. Similarly, in the New York City, the Latinos and Blacks are the victims of stop-and-frisks. While the New York City authorities say that it helps lower crimes, New York Civil Liberties Union have shown that whites have been found in the possession of more weapons than their Hispanic and/or African American counterparts. All these above-mentioned examples prove Alexander’s idea of racism persists.

Criminal profiling is designed to help police spot criminals by developing a set of personal and behavioral characteristics associated with particular offences, with a better “profiles” it is easier to treat whoever as a suspect. (Harris,11). But while using this tactic, it can quickly become into harsh racial profiling, only because they both share the same techniques. But many law enforcements might argue back that it makes perfect sense in using these specific traits due to that fact that certain races have larger involvement in certain crimes (Harris,17). By saying this, the officials basically have a free pass at detaining anybody, only on the basis of a suspicion which is concidently related to their skin color. There have been countless situations where innocent people who are automatically assumed to criminals and were discriminated against. One example dating back to 1998, happened to Sergeant First Class Rossano Gerald, an African American who had devoted his life to the United States Army, was on the way to a family reunion in Oklahoma. During the roadtrip Gerald noticed several patrol cars who followed him for a little bits of times. Then, he was pulled over six times and the seventh time after being wrongfully accused of going over the speed limit and even after providing a valid licence, proof of insurance and a army identification, was detained inside a police vehicle. The police then said that he has smelled drugs and called the dogs to look for

Racial profiling occurs when the police target someone for investigation on the basis of that person’s race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples for profiling are the use of race to determine which motorists or pedestrians to search for contraband. Racial profiling is prevalent in America. Despite the civil rights victory of 30 years ago, official racial prejudice is still reflected throughout the criminal justice system. For African Americans in cities larger and smaller across the nation, north, south, east, west, Jim Crow “justice is still alive and well.” Racial profiling by law enforcement is a major problem in the U.S. that can be solved by citizens and the police at the same time. The police need

Many equate the war on drugs as the beginning of the use of the term “racial profiling.” The war on drugs gained momentum in the 1980s, with the introduction of crack cocaine into black communities. Thus the most recent incarnation of the “Racial Profiling” began

For this reason, ethnic profiling should carry less weight in the decision making of law enforcement agents and in the realm of criminal justice. In turn, the criminal justice system should promote the use behavioral profiling, a more effective alternative with a lesser rate of wrongful arrests.

Racial Profiling in America is used in an unacceptable and inappropriate used every day by the law enforcement. Many times people do not realize they are using racial profiling among each other and commonly in a discriminatory or harmful way in many occasions. In many occasions people have been mistaken for criminals because they are using racial profiling incorrectly.

It was typical hot friday afternoon in Miami, Florida where I encountered Mr. Tomas Name, a current law student, at the set rendezvous(Tijuana Flats). The good sir eager to start the interview received me with an ecstatic grin and said “let us get to it.” Of course after ordering the mega burritos, I got the tape recorder and we began the interview about the war on drugs, Mr. Tomas’ favorite subject. Immediately with a fire starter question like “what are your current thoughts on the U.S. Federal drug policy?” the gears were set into motion, without a flinch Mr. Tomas replied, “lately it's been getting slightly better, but not enough to call it a success.” He also inferred that how is cannabis a schedule 1 narcotic when the U.S. government has medicinal patents on the

Ever since the late 1970 's profiling was associated with a method of spotting and stopping drug traffickers. The profiling provided not only a quick way to see evidence of concealment in the vehicle, but included age and race characteristics of possible drivers (Data Collection Resource Center). The controversy is over whether or not there are a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics involved with law enforcement that reflects police racism or is it merely the outcome of disproportionate minority crime (MacDonald). MacDonald reported the high rates of minority stops and arrests do not accurately reveal racism was the cause. In the past

The drug problem in the U.S. and around the world is an important issue and seems to be a difficult problem to tackle across the board. The inflow of drugs has become one of the largest growths in transnational crime operations; illicit drug use in the United States makes it very difficult for nation states police and customs forces to get a handle on the issues. War on drugs, drug trafficking has long been an issue for the United States. There has been a proclamation of “war on drugs” for the past 44 years.