There are two primary sides to racial profiling that are shown to the citizens who are affected by this, one from the media’s perspective and the other from police themselves. No matter whose side one is on for police or media the practice of racial profiling is wrong, and often can lead to false arrest or a suspect getting away due to assuming another race committed the offense. An example of racial profiling gone wrong hits close to home here in D.C., the D. C. Sniper shootings. In pursuing the suspects police described them to be two white males, mid thirties, when the snipers were caught they in fact were not white but African –American. This form of racial profiling resulted in a loss of many lives, had they done a little more investigation the suspects would have been apprehended sooner. Racial profiling is a technique used in characterizing someone using their color or ethnic background to determine if they will commit a criminal offense. This practice has gone on for centuries around the world; it is seen the most in the spot light of Law enforcement officials and in government agencies. Law enforcement officials have been known to use it in the past for the fight against drug trafficking; more recently after the September 11th attacks, the use of racial profiling was established by the bush administration to crack down on terrorist. The practice of racial profiling is banned by law enforcement officials, Media officials still believe that this practice is continuing to go on under the radar. Outside of the D.C. sniper shootings comes the issue of a Harvard Law professor being arrested by a Cambridge police officer upon his return home from china. The initial arrest by Sergeant James Crowley lead to accusations of racial profiling, and heavily covered by the media. The charges of against Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were later dropped, and lead to be a misunderstanding between the two men.
The Media raises questions regarding law enforcement’s judgment regarding traffic and other stops sought out and prosecuted by police. The media asserts that police use racial profiling to make many of their traffic stops, and use the fact that only one out of sixteen stops results in an actual arrest to support their reasoning. Herb Boyd of the New York Amsterdam News notes “In just two years, 1997 and 1998, 35,000 of the 45,000 stop-and-frisks reported by the SCU (street crime unit) did not result in an arrest. A Statistical analysis revealed that the SCU stopped 16 African- Americans for every arrest made.” As a result In the early 1990’s police were required to keep records of stops both traffic and stop-and-frisks to get an idea of the percentages of African-Americans and Hispanics stopped and that of whites. As citizens it is hard to trust if police record their stops accurately.
Law enforcement officials respond to the critics of the media regarding racial profiling, police simply do not partake in profiling to make traffic stops or general arrest. Law enforcement officials often use statistics of a particular demographic area, characteristics of a person’s behavior or actions and information provided by informants to determine arrest. Traffic stops are determined by the behavior of the driver and speed variations. According to police records often minorities’ stops can be increased by the demographics of the neighborhood, obviously if the offenders are stopped in a minority neighborhood than the ratio of minorities to whites being stopped will be elevated. Outside of this police often patrol heavy crime areas which are often linked as being minority neighborhoods. An article in facts on file ‘Crime and Race’ supports this with this statement, “And police stop large numbers of blacks and Hispanics because they often patrol most heavily in high-crime, minority neighborhoods” (3). In a number of complaints by minorities being targeted by police they often disregard that defining behaviors are behind the numbers.
The general public is losing trust in their law enforcement officials due to racial profiling and corruption among police departments. Police often predetermine someone as being a criminal by simply looking at their race or association with different religious groups. As a result parents are raising their children to act a certain way when it comes to interactions with local police. Bela August Walker, a journalist for the Columbia law review writes “Black parents counsel their children – particularly their sons- on how to behave if confronted by the police. (663)” Law enforcement has compromised its relationships with the minority communities in order to maintain a high number of arrests. In return police become less efficient to the communities and allow other criminal acts to continue prosecuted for their main focus is that of minorities.
Media wants the general public to lose trust in law enforcement officials; however police need to have strong relations with the public in order to effectively do their jobs. Law enforcement officials depend on their relationships in minority communities for proper Intel on criminal activities. Walker states” Law enforcement depends on legitimacy both to compel civilian assistance in police work and as a means of inducing voluntary compliance with legal norms. Police work- especially now, as we move towards community policing- depends on trust. (663)” If the police did in fact alienate and pin point these communities for most of their arrest, lack of cooperation in these communities would greatly impact law enforcements ability to perform their job effectively. Continuous accusations of police using racial profiling in these neighborhoods in the long run may result in fewer arrests of actual criminals; so the citizens in these neighborhoods will only hurt themselves.
The media reflects upon the different levels of crime in our cities as a result of poor policing by law enforcement officials, which utilize racial profiling to make a number of arrests. While it is often effective in most cases many more go unresolved and are overlooked. In the war against illegal drug trafficking police have become very aggressive in using racial profiling to make their stops and arrest. Police in this aspect went too far in their crack down resulting in lost lives. The facts on file article,’ crime and race’ writes “In the 1990s state and local police used racial profiling as a way of trying to catch motorists who were transporting drugs. That led to outrage, particularly after two police officers shot several black and Hispanic motorists whom they had pulled over in New Jersey in 1998. (2)” Police can sometimes become the center spot light in the war on crimes as they partake in criminal offenses as well.
Police are often very careful regarding stops and arrest due to many accusations of racial profiling. The result of this is less efficient policing and careful interrogations when apprehending a suspect. While their practices may reflect an uneven number of arrests of minorities than whites, they do not ignore the crimes committed by white offenders. Larry J. Siegel writer of Criminology the core, states “The UCR may reflect discretionary police practices in crime, such as robbery and murder. But it is improbable that police discretion alone accounts for these proportions. It is doubtful that police routinely ignore white killers, robbers, and rapists while arresting violent black offenders.” (47) Crime levels themselves are predominately reflected upon the neighborhoods themselves and resources available for law enforcement officials that serve them.
While some law enforcement officials may practice racial profiling, it is simply reduced to the individual not police in general. Police depend upon the communities and individuals that reside in them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Racial profiling is condemned in the law enforcement community for it is a form of racism, and highly frowned upon by those citizens they are sworn to protect. Police use behavior traits to determine an arrest, stop and frisk, or general traffic stops while on patrol. As a law enforcement official they are to be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, and rely on the public to assist them in their daily duties. Police overall do not partake in the technique of racial profiling, for it simply does not benefit them to do so. To summarize the controversy the media takes a stand point on police using the technique of racial profiling primarily to reduce the crime rate, and often are founded to be wrong. Police have in the past used racial profiling on the job and no longer use that technique; often they are forced to defend their decisions to the media upon why the suspect or suspects were arrested.
Works cited
Boyd, Herb. "COPS MUST PAY. (Cover story)." New York Amsterdam
News 94.39 (25 Sep. 2003): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Northern Virginia community college, Reston, Va, 26 July 2009
Cloud, John, Marguerite Michaels, and Sarah Sturmon Dale. "What's RACE
Got To Do With It? (Cover story)." Time 158.4 (30 July 2001): 42. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO.
Northern Virginia Community college . Reston. VA. 26 July 2009
Update: Crime and Race.”Issues & Controversies on file. 25 May 2007. Issues & Controversies. Facts on file News services. 9 July 2009. http://www.2facts.com
Holly Whisenhunt Stephen, and Brian Collister. "RACIAL PROFILING. " Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal 1 Sep. 2005: Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 26 Jul. 2009.
Siegel, J. Larry. “ Criminology: the core”.Belmont.CA.2005
Walker, August Bella.” The Color of Crime: The case,against Race-based Suspect Descriptions”.EBSCO. Northern Virginia Community College. Reston.VA. 26 July 2009
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