Police And Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling is where law enforcement uses a person race as the main factor in deciding rather or not to arrest them, pull them over, detain them, etc. (Regoli, R., Hewitt, J., & Delisi, M., 2014). In the recent past there have been several instances where possible racial profiling took a bad turn and ended in death a public uproar. On Saturday August 11th, Michael Brown a black teen was killed by a police officer (Chuck, 2014). Brown had no gun, was not violating any major laws (except walking in the street), he was not threatening the officer’s life, and yet the child was shot dead by the officer. Philando Castile a nutrition supervisor for the school district in Falcon Heights, Minnesota was shot a killed by a police officer in his car, …show more content…
The question arises of what goes through a police officer’s mind when it comes down to making contact or an arrest of any juvenile let alone a black child. Police discretion is defined as the authority they have to make decisions, they can simply talk to a teen and release them, they can write a report yet still release the teen, they can release the teen yet make a request for more formal investigation by the courts, they can search the teen, issue a ticket, or arrest the juvenile (Regoli, R., Hewitt, J., & Delisi, M., 2014). Obviously law enforcement officers have a lot of options when dealing with juveniles. When it comes to arresting the teen there are 4 main things for the officer to consider, how serious is the offense, do they have a prior record, is there evidence of the crime, and is their behavior suspicious (Regoli, R., Hewitt, J., & Delisi, M., 2014). All of these things enable law enforcement personnel to act appropriately and yes differently when dealing with youth. I think that because of the thought process and developmental stages of young people these kinds of things are necessary and potentially helpful. There are people in our country, groups of many people in fact that think that officers may quickly consider all of these factors but ultimately are harsher on black youth than others, that they are discriminating against them and racially …show more content…
This could include training in problem solving, better leadership in the department, increasing helpful police and labor unions, a change in the decision making done by officers, reexamining the location officers are assigned to, better recruitment and hiring, and better communication and technology (Community Policing Defined, 2014). Putting a substation in the middle of a neighborhood with higher than normal crime rates would be a great way to encourage positive community policing. Getting police officers out of their patrol cars and policing on foot or on bike gets them more engaged in the community. My husband worked for a police department in a small coastal community and the officers loved when summer came around, with the warm weather they ditched their patrol cars and grabbed their bikes. It gave them the chance to get closer to the people and break down some of the barriers that the flashy patrol car and its lights and sirens