This is an annotated bibliography researching the opinions on police having the right to stop, question, and frisk anyone they deem suspicious. I am researching the reasoning behind police suspicion in citizen stops.
Alpert, Geoffrey P., John M. MacDonald, and Roger G. Dunham. "POLICE SUSPICION AND DISCRETIONARY DECISION MAKING DURING CITIZEN STOPS*."Criminology, vol. 43, no. 2, 2005., pp. 407-434, http://nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 220709211?accountid=13939.
This is an article by Alpert, Macdonald, and Duham they study citizen stops made by police under suspicion. They discuss some of the factors that play a role in suspicious stops such as, race, neighborhood location, and types of vehicles. All these variables play a key role in police right to stop and question, and frisk. One of the main elements in frisking is racial profiling. Another
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In the recent ruling made state court decided that police may not frisk in an encounter. Police may frisk if they believe that the citizen is involved in a criminal case or may be armed and dangerous. The article discusses a case dealing with two male teenagers that were stopped and frisked, they did seize guns by both male teenagers. But court declared that the search made by police was not authorized for a warrant because the search was not specific enough. Another point made by the case involving the two male teenagers, is that just because two black male teenagers walking in a neighborhood with a high crime rate makes law enforcement pin point them as suspicious. Many law enforcement officers are putting their lives at risk due to stopping and frisking, these rulings were made to protect the officer’s life. I will use the information discovered in this article as a reference to why stopping and frisking is unnecessary in many
Terry v. Ohio was a pivotal case for the Fourth Amendment and for the citizens of the United States of America. As referenced by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, in nineteen sixty three an off duty detective in Cleveland, Ohio stopped and frisked two African American men and one white man based on a ‘reasonable suspicion that the men were about to commit a crime’ (ACLUOhio, 2014). The ruling of this case has set in motion the gross abuse of stop and frisks in minority communities and among minority races in the twenty-first century; ultimately racial profiling in a post-racial era.
Apart from periodically publishing stop and search records, supervisors and managers of police force are now required to closely monitor such statistics and take timely actions if something wrong is being observed. Also stricter rules on stop and search have since been imposed, along with the requirement of police officers writing a detailed report on spot about every single incident which subjects to review seems helpful in improving police conduct (Fyfe 1979; Skogan and Frydl 2004 in Miller 2010). While stop and search practice has been somehow improved, racial discrimination can still be seen in stop and search statistics. The notion of “Black and minority ethnic groups, particularly black people, have for many years been disproportionately at the receiving end of police stop and search—a fact associated with profound community resentment towards the police” (Bowling and Phillips 2002 in Miller 2010) still largely applies today. Miller’s (2010) analysis indicate that black people are about 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched, while it is about 2 times more likely for Asians. Similar idea is seen in Bennetto’s (2009) report, which draws on police statistics that shows in 2009 “black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white”, worse than Miller’s analysis with the most recent figures in 2008. No official explaination is provided by Police, but Bennetto (2009) assumes this may be caused by simply discrimination of
Some parts of the United States have made laws that have police officers to avoid using racial profiling at traffic stops. They are to only pay attention to the possible crime that is beginning and they are not allowed to be pull over due to race. Although it is not allowed, there are loopholes for the law enforcements use in racially profiling; if police have information on a subject, racially profiling is found to be “efficient and logical”.
Imagine innocently walking down the street in a city you’ve lived in your whole life, when all of a sudden you hear the dreaded “woop woop” and see those flashing red and blue lights. The police. They interrogate you, ask your whereabouts, and finally, they “frisk” you. Of course, they find nothing; they rarely do when they search people. Although it’s wrong and demoralizing, you know it’s something you’ll have to get used to as an African American living in New York City.
Following through the process of the criminal justice system, after being stopped by police officers, many individuals remain innocent of committing any crime and walk away from the situation without further questions asked. However, at this point, silence is not the answer. Alexander notes regarding the unreasonable searches, “Hardly anyone files a complaint, because the last thing most people want to do after experiencing a frightening and intrusive encounter with the police is show up at the police station where the officer works and attract more attention to themselves” (Alexander 69). Therefore, these countless searches remain unheard of by many because the innocent are too scared to come forward and tell their stories. Perhaps if the silence is broken, word of mouth would prevent others from being unlawfully searched and arrested based on no suspicion. This is not the case though; nevertheless, it is known that “the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) trains police to conduct utterly unreasonable and discriminatory stops and searches” (Alexander 70). The use of such searches and methods to determine whom
The stop, question, and frisk policy was implemented in the NYPD in an effort to make the city a safer place. With weapons becoming more easily accessible than ever, they are becoming more of a problem, and officers and the general public are now in more danger than ever of being killed by a firearm, knife, or a weapon. Although the policy is intended to prevent harm and protect society, it has been under major scrutiny in not only the past few years, but also the past few decades as well. Due to the fact that minorities are believed to be the main target of this policing tactic, many people have argued it is inherently corrupt should be abolished. On the other hand, it has shown to provide some positive outcomes and as a result, it is a necessary
This group has countless stereotypes of violence and racial inequalities thrown at them, making them a huge target for surveillance not just by peers, but by the government as well. The most notable types of surveillance towards African Americans come from the police, who frequently target them seemingly based on their ethnicity. In the article “Is Stop-and-Frisk Worth It?” written by Daniel Bergner, the author elaborates on the notorious surveillance practice, frisk searches, and how useful they may or may not be. The author explains how they are frequently used on African Americans, while not so much on other races like the Caucasian majority, which gives this surveillance method a bad reputation. A scientific article titled An Analysis of the New York City Police Department’s “Stop-and-Frisk” Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias, written by Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss, further confirms this racial profiling issue through frisking, by concluding with sufficient evidence, that the New York Police Department “was stopping blacks and Hispanics more often than whites” (Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss, 821). For the majority of whites, frisking is never really a threat in the first place because of our skin color, thus giving us social privileges as opposed to blacks who seem to lack most of
The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices raise serious concerns over racial profiling, illegal stops and privacy rights. The Department’s own reports on its stop and frisk activity confirm what many people in communities of color across the city have long known: The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are black and Latino. In 2011, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 685,724 times. 605,328 were totally innocent (88 percent). 350,743 were black (53 percent). 223,740
The policy of New York Police Department‘s (NYPD) stop question and frisk for some time been a highly controversial situation of policing under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Commissioner Raymond Kelly administration. This administration praised the stop and frisk policy as a valuable resource to the City‘s successful mitigation in reducing violent crime. A resource to removing guns from the streets as well improving the quality of life for the communities that are most affected by those
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.)
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 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.
Racial profiling is simply, “the unlawful police practice of using race, color, or ethnic background, as the reason for conducting a traffic stop on an individual.” (Michigan Civil Rights Commission) This definition can be extended to any kind of discrimination mainly based on myths and stereotypes towards a certain race or ethnicity. However, the term racial profiling is commonly used when a police officer or any other law enforcer stops, questions, searches or arrests an individual purely on the basis of their race. African Americans or simply blacks have been the major racial group that has suffered much of racial profiling. Much of this is based on the stereotypes against the blacks are perceived as more likely to engage in criminal activities. For instance, in a 2013 Racial Profiling Data from Ferguson Police Department, out of 5384 police stops, 4632 were against blacks. (Ferguson Police Dept. 1) Despite the low population of blacks in U.S. compared to other races, the former continues being subjected to more racial profiling. Racial profiling against African Americans continues to expose the blacks to humiliation and racial injustices, as this paper will expose, thereby calling for the responsible authorities to address and find solutions for the problem.
Racial profiling is an example of police brutality, which is defined by Gross and Livingston (2002) as “the practice of some officers of stopping motorists of certain racial or ethnic groups because the officer believe that these groups are more likely than others to commit certain types of crimes” (p.1413). Therefore, individuals are treated unfairly by law enforcement solely based on their race. This type of mistreatment is unmerited and ultimately a violation of an individual’s rights. However, in many instances the courts do not find it a violation of their civil rights based on the fact that racial profiling is difficult to prove. Often, prosecutors are disinclined in bringing forth a case against officers on this particular matter. Officers are permitted to stop and search individuals and their vehicles whenever there is reasonable suspicion, however, there has been studies that prove that some law enforcement officers restrict these rights primarily to minority groups. Bowling and Phillips found that although there was no formal monitoring of use of these powers, it was concluded that it was particularly heavy use of these powers against ethnic minorities, largely of young black people (as cited in Sharp & Atherton, 2007, p. 747) . In several cases, officers argue that they reasonably pulled an individual over for other probable grounds such as: traffic violations, suspicious behavior, etc., with race never being an
A police officer’s abuse of power comes from the amounts of stop and frisks towards people of color and the actions taken for the arrest. A police officer will use pre-textual stops to justify stopping a black person. If an officer deems a black person to be suspicious based on appearance, then that black person has committed a crime. John Clemons, writer of a journal article, “Blind injustice: The