Racial Profiling In Law Enforcement

Great Essays
Picture an officer approaching a car for a traffic stop not knowing what might unfold in this altercation. The officer must be ready and quick to make a decision. He reaches the car window to find an African American male in the driver seat. The officer and the driver speak to each other and the officer gets the mans identification. When returning to the cruiser the young African American man exits his car and begins to advance toward the officer. The officer orders the man to stop and return to his car but, the man presses forward disobeying the officers orders. The officer draws his firearm and fires upon the young African American man. This scenario is common in many police conflicts with different racial groups.Violent altercations …show more content…
. Because of previous police altercations criminal profiling is commonly used to determine suspects.
"Racial profiling refers to discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion. or national origin. Criminal profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations (commonly referred to as “driving while black or brown”) ,or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband"(American Civil Liberties Union). This form of criminal profiling has affected the work of undercover officers. "Minority undercover officers have been killed significantly more often by there counterparts"(Militarized Police Departments). Not only are officers shooting each other during under cover stings, but they are still harassing civilians by stopping them for minor traffic stops and then searching their vehicles over a persons appearance. "Us department of justice reported on police contact with the public and found that African Americans were 20 percent more likely than whites to be stopped and 50 percent more likely to experienced more than one stop"(Taking points on...Profiling). On top of the stop and frisk method and criminal profiling there are many other abuses that still affect many

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    However, statistics show that profiling in fact does nothing to alleviate crime because when you profile an innocent citizen you are wasting time, money, and resources that could have been used on preventing actual crime. For example, black and Hispanic motorists are pulled over at a significantly higher rate than white motorists. The ACLU found that, blacks were twice as likely to be arrested and blacks were nearly four times as likely to experience the threat or use of force during interactions with the police (Harris 68). Kenneth Meeks in his book, Driving While Black, addresses this issue and how “cases where victims find themselves looking down the barrel of a policeman 's gun make the six o 'clock news, dozens of less extreme, yet troubling, examples occur every day” (Meeks 14). Profiling, no matter the form, is wrong and only helps to sully the relationship between the races and law…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The officer who shot the 18 year old unarmed victim Michael Brown, was charged with the crime that was committed by shooting at the unarmed victim. According to a scholar website Scholarship.law.upenn.edu, claims how stop and frisk practices give out no attention without the conduct of legal justification, causing “independent racial profiling concerns” (Scholarship.law.upenn.edu., 2001). Also according to an article, Whren’s Flawed Assumptions Regarding Race, History, and Unconscious Bias, by William M. Carter, states that “pretextual searches and seizures conduct in limitations on the ability of people of color by giving law enforcement officials a widespread of discretion to utilize pretextual stops” (Carter, 2016). Alongside with this being said, stereotypes in racial profiling causes supremacy and power within different races and cultures among officers and minorities. This leads minorities of different race to be frightened towards law…

    • 1607 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Racial profiling of African Americans in the U.S. Racial profiling is one of the challenges that African American face every day. However, there is several people that claim that racial profiling of African American does not exist, but rather it is a personal whim. Racial profiling of African American exists in a wider extent such as law enforcement agencies, the education system, the criminal justice system, and even in restaurants. To make a stop to racial profiling of African Americans, society must first acknowledge the problem. This essay will provide facts, demographic statistics and personal anecdotes to address the audience that racial profiling exists in the U.S.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Racial Profiling Cases

    • 2062 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The ACLU defines racial profiling as, “discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin”. While this act is shown in many other areas, law enforcement is included, but not limited to. The work force, education, and every day conversation, the primary focus of this essay will illuminate the recent racial profiling cases and their link to police brutality. Racial Profiling can serve as an effective tool in crime finding the specific objective of finding criminal activity a foot. A process of perception an articulation of relative human characteristics (negative and positive), racial profiling should be understood as distinct…

    • 2062 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Issues Relating to Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Law enforcement officers often use the term profiling, which refers to a practice of describing individual behavior (positive or negative) and/or certain personal characteristics. At some point in time, the term profiling has evolved from its original specific intent and shifted from an individual’s actions to the individual’s race, ethnicity or national origin of an individual. Many individuals have seen law enforcement officers from interstate highways to airports describe an individual criminal behavior based on race. In the United States, racial profiling has been used as a way to stereotype an individual or groups solely on race and/or even on the person’s negative behavior still…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racial Profiling Racial profiling: the practice of assuming that one has committed an offense on the sole basis of their race or ethnicity. More often than not, racial profiling also goes hand in hand with police brutality and corruption. While repudiation of the argument that liberal media outlets make the effort to observe police-minority interactions through untainted lenses by hyperbolic perspectives difficult, the recent abundance of questionably handled cases within the United States involving people of minority groups and police officers has nonetheless incited national debates over what changes need to occur in order to have a more efficient policing system. The American justice system must take the initiative to put an end…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racial profiling is behind a lot of citizens being falsely accused of a crime they did not commit. Law enforcement practices the use of racial profiling to identify criminals who are doing wrong in society or look suspicious. Police officers use racial profiling in a negative way. They judge by the color of skin, what we look like, what we wear, and what other people in their ethnicity make of their repetition. Evidence proves that police officers abuse their power to find potential criminals.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In fact, statistical data from many jurisdictions shows the opposite: "hit rates" for minorities subjected to pedestrian and traffic stops, are generally lower than hit rates for Whites. Racial profiling is not only humiliating and contrary to core American values, it is also ineffective as a law enforcement tactic. And the consequences of racial profiling are severe: profiling harms innocent people, misrepresent the U.S. prison population, isolate minority communities, and contributes to a crisis of confidence in the criminal justice…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    60 individuals were interviewed in this study both black and whites. The study reveals that blacks are targeted to be stopped on suspicions alone. Blacks feel as if their freedom to drive has been provoked because of their skin color. Therefore racial tension continues on the rise. The article explains that racial profiling happens in numerous ways and impacts people of color in the 21st century.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Racial Profiling Essay

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Mainghor Tang Mrs. Daniels ERCW. 5 7 Oct. 2016 Who We Truly Are Is Not Skin Deep With the recent shootings of African Americans by white police officers, the topic of racial profiling is once again reignited. The issue is especially prevalent and controversial in the United States, chiefly due to the fact that America is a diverse country with many ethnic groups.…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pulled Over Summary

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I do not believe white police officers, such as the ones recently portrayed in the media intend to kill African American people. If in the same situation with a white victim officers would have likely done the same action. In order to get a handle on these race issues, the author suggest Police leaders should promote professional norm of not stopping drivers or pedestrians except when justified by clear evidence of criminal behavior. (Epp Et al. Kindle…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The use of profiling puts people of color in uncomfortable, and dangerous situations, only to be released with no charges. Ongoing movements such as BLM have resulted from this discrimination. Over the past few years, as BLM has grown, so has the distrust of law enforcement. Fewer than 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2014 were suspected of a violent crimes and allegedly armed. (mapping police violence).…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racial profiling is a racist tactic of people, not just by police who label others, but everyone as a whole. It is based on the attitude that consists of false and derogatory beliefs about the group that is being racially profiled (Bou-Habib 34). It is wrong by claiming that certain racial groups are responsible for all crimes and are less able to comply with laws and we have reason to reject racial profiling if its use is accompanied by a harassing manner on part of public officials towards those investigated (Bou-Habib 34). If you look at racial profiling from a conflict perspective, those with power and money define what is normal in our society. Law enforcement often penalizes those without power which usually involves lower class poverty families, and benefits those with power who have a lot of…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racial Profiling used by Police officers With the issue of racial profiling it is described by Risse “ that there is significant correlation between membership in certain racial groups and the tendency to commit certain crimes”(Risse M). Describing that many crimes are only committed by only few and select racial groups. There has been many studies that investigate police on the issue. This was even stated by Langan saying “Traffic stops are the single most frequent type of police-citizen encounter” (Huggins 2011). With Lundman stating that “Accordingly, traffic stops are central to citizens’ perceptions of the police” (Huggins 2011)…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Race And Crime Essay

    • 4514 Words
    • 18 Pages

    The relationship between race and crime and its impact on decisions in the criminal justice system is a topic of controversy in both public and academic spheres. The imprisonment of ethnic minorities at a higher rate than their White counterpart occurs in most western nation (La Prairie, 1999; Tonry, 1995, 1997). In Canada, the overly represented groups are Aboriginals (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis) and Black Canadians relative to their incidence in the general population (Roberts & Stenning, 2001; Owusu-Bempah & Wortley, 2013). The over-representation of Indigenous Canadians in the penitentiary has been widely documented both in government reports and academic literature (Badock, 1976; Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, 1991; Clark…

    • 4514 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Great Essays