The Role Of Racial Profiling In Law Enforcement

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

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).

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 used by many Americans in the united states. Blacks, whites and mexicans all use racial profiling. Their profiling is much different then you could say is used by police enforcement today. Minorities are high on the list of racial profiling by police in today 's society. This has caused many issues with minorities and police enforcement relations since police use this as a way of controlling crime rates in many cities. With this paper it will be to show and scrutinize every aspect of consequences of racial profiling with police and individuals such as minorities. To be able to explain and probe racial profiling and the issues that coincide with this issue. I will then provide an explanation with background of what racial profiling means. Then providing research that will show the issue of racial profiling with how it will affect the relations between individuals and law enforcement departments.

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 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.

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).

We live in a society that has prospered generously over the years. America has opened its doors for so many different people by establishing itself as a free country. Not only have we progressed in technology and economically but we have created our own identity by becoming a free nation in which every individual has the same rights and eligibility as the other. This is the core of our countries success; we are not a nation unified distinctly by a specific race, religion or culture but by the compulsive efforts of our nation’s laws to uphold freedom in every aspect of a civilian’s life. People are not only allowed but encouraged to practice the religion of their choice, eat the food they desire, speak the language they prefer. There is even freedom in the most minute of things such as being able to listen to the music of your choice, these are the laws that promote diversity and strengthen our nation today. Our nation’s identity and prosperity is built upon multiculturalism and ethnic tolerance. However, this was not always the case it has taken many long and brutal years become the stable and versatile country that we are today. Specifically dating back to when this land was first founded and thereafter we see our nation has struggled with conflicts against politics, discrimination, and public affairs up till this very day.

As the controversial topic of stopping and frisking is widely discussed throughout this country, citizens wonder what factors are involved in causing law enforcement to decide to stop and frisk someone. Some believe that law enforcement wrongly use race as a factor for stopping and frisking, while others refute this claim by arguing that race is a necessary determining factor in order to reduce crime. People not guilty of crimes should be able to feel safe around police officers; however, it is a police officer’s job to take necessary steps to stop those they assume are engaging in suspicious activity. Even though many have lost trust in police officers due to recent innocent lives who have been victims of police brutality,

Racial profiling is a major issue in today’s law enforcement. Cases of police officers committing racially motivated acts are consistently the leading stories for television reporters and articles. Procedures such as the stop and frisk or a typical traffic stop are often said to factor in race when deciding whom to stop. Racial profiling is defined as “the consideration of race, ethnicity, or national origin by an officer of the law in deciding when and how to intervene in an enforcement capacity”(“Racial Profiling”, n.d.). Society’s racial profiling accusations are putting police officers everywhere in a danger every time they make a stop. There are riots and police officers being shot all across America. Any information collected on racial profiling in cities always leads to the same conclusion: “police disproportionately stop people of color for traffic violations relative to population composition and treat minorities different than Whites during the encounters (e.g. citations, arrests, length of time persons are stopped, and searches of persons and their possessions)” (Novak, 2004, p. 66). The methods police officers are taking are not enough to completely prevent racial

Racial profiling is a practice that targets people for “suspicion” of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. People of the law creates profiles about different kinds of people that commit certain types of crimes that may lead officers to certain kinds of scenarios about different groups of people and also act a different kind of way either when that group of particular of people are around. Racial profiling has caused many problems within the law enforcement agencies, they have been through multiple civil right concerns.Racial profiling by the police has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years, but we know little about the extent of the problem and even less about public perceptions of profiling

Racial profiling is often used as a tool for the majority of police departments in the United States to systematically address and prevent crimes. This method practiced by the police department with the premise of stopping crime appears as a controversial matter by the mass public. While the police may claim racial profiling deters crime, stopping innocent bystanders based on race does not attribute in the cause of combating crime, therefore racial profiling should not be an indefinite tool for police departments.

Ever Since being forced to the united states as slaves blacks have been exposed to racism and legal discrimination citizens of African descent in the United States living threw things like Jim crow laws which were laws set to legally separate blacks like they were lesser to white citizens, or dealing acts of terror by groups like the KKK or other racist whites. And most importantly going through slavery which heavily set blacks back. Black men as a whole in society are believed to have the toughest time. They are often portrayed by society to be hoodlums or thugs when in reality that’s a small percentage, society lets a small amount represent the larger body. According to the Washington Post “African Americans are 13% of the country 's population, but they are 62.7% of convicted drug users/dealers. Caucasians are 80% of the country 's population, they are the majority of drug users/dealers but only 36.7% of them are locked up” this is a direct result of racial profiling and discrimination. We as a society need to improve and bring awareness to the topic of male males being profiled and discriminated against.

Tension between police and minority groups have caused many violent riots throughout the years. The 1992 Los Angeles riots were mainly due to black-white tensions, and the public’s response to the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers in the case against Rodney King (Baldassare, 1994). Agencies have taken notice of this problem and are now doing their best to try to reverse societies perceptions of racial profiling. This paper will explore the problem of racial profiling, and how police agencies are now using new policies and techniques to help limit it.

A survey reviewed a percent of people that trust law officials. The result verifies that the majority of whites trust the police than blacks and hispanics do. Another survey analyzed half of Los Angeles residents agreed that force used by police were necessary but, less than a third of African Americans doubt this. A report of a 19 year old college student proclaims that he is repeatedly asked about his whereabouts and daily activities from the same officer. “Where are you going? Do you have anything you shouldn’t have?” (LAPD Officer). Suspicion arises between the colleague and officer meanwhile, several reports claim that a high percent of ethnic people were being pulled over.