Factors That Cause The Police Of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is a very prevalent issue within the criminal justice system that is quite controversial, but there is a significant number of evidence that shows that racial profiling has been present since the 1600’s and continues to be a significant issue. Racial profiling is evident in the criminal justice system in various ways such as in interrogations, jury selection, misleading statistics, stops, and immigration laws. Racial profiling within interrogations and jury selection can be seen with the Brandley v. Keeshan case. Racial profiling within statistics can be seen in instances where the numbers focus on arrests and incarcerations that do not necessarily mean a crime was committed. Stops are seen as evidence showing racial profiling with a personal experience, and lastly, immigration laws are seen as showing racial profiling by the encounter of a Mexican American women had with an officer in Arizona.

This paper outlines the studies, incidents, facts and statistics that have found evidence of racial profiling which causes distrust in the law enforcements (police, government etc0. Studies of racial profiling shows that blacks, Hispanics, Middle Eastern and other racial minorities are more likely to be stopped than those who are white. They are more likely to be stopped and searches, traffic stops, license and registration checks. In addition they are more likely to be ticketed or arrested after being stopped and search. Some scholars and studies believes that minorities being that are frequently stopped and searched has nothing to do with them being racially profiled. According to Roh and Robinson,” studies raise the possibility that minorities may be more involved in criminality (Gaines, 2006), some drug crimes (Lichtenberg, 2006), and speeding offenses (Lange, Johnson, & Voas, 2005), thereby justifying higher stop and arrest rates by police of some groups.” (Roh, S., & Robinson, M.)

Racial profiling is still an ongoing issue that occurs and such an issue has led to many problems for the minority groups of this country. Whether it be African Americans, Indians, Asians, Mexicans, or Muslims, all have faced profiling at some point in time. The problems caused by this controversial subject include the impending distrust between black communities and law enforcement, unfair treatment towards all minorities by law enforcement, verbal and physical abuse of minorities by police officers which can sometimes lead to death, emotional unstableness of the victims whom have faced such a terrible judgement, and the negative impact it has on children of the minority groups.

Racial profiling in law enforcement is referenced when a law enforcement officer targets an individual for suspicion of a crime. A broader definition of racial profiling in law enforcements is when a law enforcement officer, uses an individual’s race or ethnicity, age , time of the day (usually later in the day), dress code and also location to accuse a person of a crime. In today’s world the term racial profiling can be viewed in various view points, because of people having different opinions on the term, many disagreements occur. Some people believe that specific incidents are not cases of racial profiling and others think otherwise, needless to say an argument occurs.

What is racial profiling? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defines racial profiling as “the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” (2005). Do not confuse racial profiling with criminal profiling; criminal profiling is usually practiced by police in which they use a group of characteristics that are associated with crime to target individuals (ACLU, 2005). Examples of racial profiling include using ones race to target specific drivers for traffic violations and pedestrians for illegal contraband; another prime example is the targeting of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians since 9/11 in

To the supporters, racial profiling makes perfect sense and is a rational law enforcement strategy (Harris, 2003). Furthermore, supporters do not acknowledge the effects racial profiling has not only on people who belong to these groups, but on the relations between police and the communities they serve. Today policing strategies which center on community policing and racial profiling only alienates people from the police and causes deep seeded mistrust. Failure to acknowledge the racial context of the law and its enforcement will only increase the racial disparities that already exist in all aspects of criminal justice (Johnson, 2003).

Besides enacting racial bias screening and training requirements, police departments need to change the way they operate, by changing poor police protocol currently in place. In other words, in some cases, this issue of racial profiling can stem from police chiefs who provide their officers with patrol assignments targeting minority neighborhoods due to implicit biases which they have. In Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation's Highways, David Harris suggests, “Because police look for drugs primarily among African Americans and Latinos, they find a disproportionate number of them with contraband” (Harris). Certain police chiefs intentionally target minority neighborhoods and put a greater effort on catching the people living there for their wrongdoings, thus making those minority groups appear as higher threats to society. The picture of crime would be reversed if the police targeted White people rather than minorities.

Ever since the late 1970 's profiling was associated with a method of interdicting drug traffickers (Data Collection Resource Center, n.d., para 3). 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, n.d., para 3). 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, 2003, pg. 9). MacDonald (2003, p. 9) reported the high rates of minority stops and arrests do not accurately reveal racism was the cause. In the past our society has labeled this problem as being prejudice or a racist, but now there is a new term. "Minorities refer to it as DWB, driving while black. Politicians call it racial profiling." (Sweeney, n.d.).

Racial profiling is “the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a predictable manner”(Racial Profiling,

Racial profiling is when a police officer uses an individual’s race for foundation to question he/she with the expectation of he/she committing a crime. Copious amounts of minority races are prone to this practice that such law enforcement use, such as African Americans, Latinos, and Middle Eastern Americans. Levels of racial profiling are exercised by certain law enforcers. Consequently, there are various factors that

I have been a police officer for nearly 10 years, and I have seen how the citizens we serve and the various media sources that surround us constantly scrutinize our actions. Simply because the actions of other officers may not be ethical, professional, or correct in the eyes of society, that should not determine the hatred towards all of the officers. Often people believe that police officers constantly and consciously commit racial profiling, but that is not the case. Chapter Four: Racial Profiling and the Law will be utilized to demonstrate the legal issues surrounding racial profiling that have led to changes in law enforcement.

“Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion” as illustrated by Warren of Sage journals. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as reasons for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. African-Americans have been fighting what seems to be a never ending battle against oppression and racism. Over the years 2012-2015, reports of police killing unarmed black men in America have been alarming.

We live in a world where police officers are first to show up during emergency situation and last defend themselves. In reality, police officers abusing their rights, leading to more serious racial profiling to others. For instance the start of stop and frisk; that is, allowing police reasonably suspect individual for dangerous behavior, and conducting a frisk, a quick pat-down of the person’s outer clothing (Fagan & Davies, n.d.). Stop and frisk has created to decrease the amount of crime on the street; however, it has slowly form a war between the black and the police.

Race impacts your chances of being arrested because police officers can assume that looking like a certain race means that you act a certain way and do certain things. Being arrested is no laughing matter, for some people being arrested will be more likely due to police officers assuming that they were doing something they were not actually doing. Since police officers have that power to question anyone if they seem suspicious there can be many victims of racial profiling, police officers also tend to use racial profiling to find out if someone is doing something illegal or breaking the law. When there is an outburst at a public event police officers are prone to use racial profiling to determine the cause of a problem. Police officers also have the tendency to make the problem even worse by exaggerating the situation. This research will show how likely it is for someone to get arrested due to their race, this will cover points of views from people being victims of racial profiling and people reacting to situations similar to this.

Throughout history especially during the time of the civil rights movements; tensions among police and residents of the black community had always presented a discrimination in racial profiling. Whether it be adults or juveniles; the practice of racial profiling had always been a problem in the community due to the evolving activities of delinquency and crimes. Tensions had increased and evolved into an uproar among the black communities in against the police force especially when the department consisted predominantly of white officers.