Profiling And Racial Biased Policing

Just what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is a law enforcement and security agency practice that encourages officers to stop, search, and investigate people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. While racial profiling is most commonly committed against ethnic minorities, many instances of racial profiling occur in reaction to specific crimes, making any racial or cultural group subject to more intensive scrutiny by the authorities. (ebscohost.com) This is what I think bout racial profiling, it like it occurs when the police targets someone for investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic

So before I can answer this million dollar question I need to establish what racial profiling is. According to the American Civil Liberties Union it is “when law enforcement and private security target people color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without evidence of criminal activity and based on perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion.” In plain English this means a person is perceived to have committed a crime only because of their race.

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

The legal definition of racial profiling is 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. The main reason law enforcement uses racial profiling is, because it can increase their chances of catching criminals. It is said that it helps to narrow down suspects and find criminals. However, racial profiling is not only unethical, it is also against the 14th Amendment. It creates fear and prevents law enforcement to properly serve the community.

Criminal justice professionals can lower the controversy surrounding profiling in law enforcement by eliminating the practice altogether. There is more than enough meta-analysis data available to substantiate that the practice of profiling is discriminatory and violates an individual’s constitutional right to have access to equal protection. For most people, when we recognize anything that does not work we either get rid of it or attempt to fix it so that it is actually useful. The same philosophy has to be applied to racial profiling. If there is to be any solution to eliminating racial profiling there must be a proper balance between the constitutional safeguard of equal protection and police policies that use race appropriately (Jones, 2006).

Back in 2000, the New York City council held a series of meetings in the Bronx after the shooting of Amandou Diallo. Their goal was to address as well as repair the relationships between police officers and city residents. However the first meeting did not go as the suspected, over two hundred of the attendees accused police officers of mistreating African-Americans. One after another shared their humiliating encounters with the police. This all occurred almost sixteen years ago, and the most upsetting part is that not a thing has changed. These actions have only alienated communities from law enforcement. Racial profiling is patently illegal and violates the U.S. Constitutions core promises of equal protection under the law.

Individuals often question why police officers take certain actions. A law enforcement officer must follow certain practices when interacting with the public, and individuals need to know how to respond in these situations. When a person is stopped by the police, he or she needs to remain respectful and courteous. Although the person may feel they are being harassed, it likely isn't. Instead, the officer is responding to a complaint lodged by another individual, whether or not there is any basis for this complaint. They are required to do so, even if little information is provided. They have no knowledge of the innocence or guilt of the person being questioned. They are simply doing their job and those being questioned need to remember this.

The targeting of individuals because of their skin color is as clear a form of discrimination as not hiring a person because of their race. Thus, racial profiling in simplest terms is intentional discrimination based on racial stereotyping. It is disheartening that such intentional discrimination is a widely used tactic by law enforcement officers, whether they openly admit to the practice or not. One must wonder what would happen if the demographics in the U.S. were to flip and white people found themselves as the minority more likely to be approached (harassed?) by police, if racial profiling would continue to be a viable practice. It is not possible. Lately tons of police officers have been killing African-Americans and getting away with it; the number of unarmed Blacks was at least 102 in 2015. There are several ways to prevent this from happening to people of

As a police officer, I have dedicated my life in serving the people and keeping them safe from potentially dangerous criminals. I had just gotten home from duty and turned on the TV. The news was on and they were reporting about the officer that shot and killed Michael Brown. The first thing that I thought was that the media has blown this incident was out of proportion. Brown must have been seen as a threat by the officer to the public to actually be shot. The protesters are calling us cops racist, that we use racial profiling. That is so far from the truth. We take every possible suspect into consideration. We look at their motive, their alibis, etc. to make sure we arrest the right person. What we do not take into consideration is their

Racial profiling is a form of bias-based profiling, and is defined as “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” (en.wikipedia.org). One of the biggest issues that police officers face is the challenge of not being accused of being biased themselves. They have to take information from suspects, victims and witnesses in

A review of Nix and Wolf’s (2015) research revealed that officers have more incentive to perform well at their jobs when the public views them in a positive light. Through the use of past research, they found a correlation with their own data that suggested officers feel more solidarity with their community when they are being viewed in a positivistic format. Further expanding upon the previous statement, they examined another article suggesting that negative annotations toward the police created an “us versus them” kind of mentality within officers that causes strain between the populace and the law. As such, it is evident from this research that organizational justice is important to an officer’s sense of self-legitimacy, suggesting that

In our society today, racial discrimination and inequality continues to be an issue. Regardless of the advancements we make in our society in terms of race, discrimination is something that can not simply be erased. The conflict with discrimination is evident when we look at the issue of racial profiling. Racial profiling refers to the treatment of an individual based on their race or ethnicity (Statistics of Racial Profiling 1). It is often a tool being used by law enforcement when deciding to confront an individual. The presence of racial profiling has caused many controversies to arise, specifically in airport security. Since the incident that occurred on 9/11, the issue has become a more relevant one. After the attacks, the government felt that it was necessary to create a counterterrorism campaign. The government claims that their actions to protect the nation from terrorists does not mean they are racially profiling. However, the clear discrimination that is directed towards Arabs and Muslims in the United States shows that it has crossed the line. The issue is dividing our community. Some people argue that national security is of the utmost importance in society and as a result, people feel the need to create a security method to protect us from potential harm. Other contend that this system created is nothing more than racial profiling that specifically discriminates against groups of people. Others still believe that this system is only necessary to protect our

Racial Bias and racial profiling are prevalent towards racial minorities for a variety of embedded reasons. Tator and Henry (2006) in their book called Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of "a Few Bad Apples have critically analyzed a variety of different studies towards racial bias. They have concluded that racial bias does exist and have described four schools of thoughts towards why racial bias is prevalent. First is the theory in Whiteness Studies, in which whites are not considered a race as other races are. Therefore, crimes committed by Whites are not considered a white crime, whereas crimes committed by Blacks, for example, is considered a black crime. This theory argues Whites are preserving and reinforcing racial bias and thus there is a hierarchical nature of the races. In Blackness Studies, they argue that the Black man is viewed as primitive and that the Black man is not cultured because of the White man’s constructed image of the Black man. This mentality had justified colonialism and currently justifies racial profiling. In Racialization Theory, they argue that whiteness is normalized, thus non-whiteness has become abnormalized, such as wearing a gold chain or a gym bag. To be preventative, abnormal traits are monitored. And fourthly, racism is prevalent because of discourses by the White elite based on structures of dominance. Thus, they argue that a combination of these theories creates racial bias and increases racial profiling.

Picture yourself as a 36-year-old white male boarding an airplane. Now imagine being forcefully removed from the flight by armed agents, held in a jail cell, humiliated by a strip search, and detained for hours without explanation. Do you find this hard to envision? For many Americans this may sound like an absurd, impossible scenario but unfortunately minorities know this situation all too well. This is the reality of Shoshana Hebshi, an Ohio woman who is half-Jewish and half-Arab. Hebshi’s frightening experience was caused by passenger’s suspicions of the amount of time two South Asian men spent in the restroom who were seated next to her. Her proximity in closeness and skin color to these strangers lead to her arrest (American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], 2015). Shoshana Hebshi was racially profiled because of a flawed system that inadequately protects the Fourth Amendment but sought justice with the help of interest groups.

The term ‘linguistic profiling’ was coined by John Baugh (2000). It is the identification of a person’s race which usually occurs over the phone, and is based on the sound of their voice and their dialect.