RACIAL PROFILING

Racial Profiling



Racial Profiling

Introduction

Race-based policing, sometimes referred to as racial profiling, is best described as a practice whereby a police officer makes a law enforcement decision, for example, a decision to stop a motorist, primarily on the basis of the motorist's race or ethnicity. During the last years of the twentieth century, serious charges of racism were leveled against some of the nation's largest police departments because of the disparity that exists between the proportion of minority drivers in a population and the proportion of minorities that are stopped, searched, or issued a traffic citation. There is a growing perception that some police officers and/or their departments are highly—and inappropriately—influenced by the race or ethnicity of the driver when making a decision to stop a vehicle and then, subsequent to the stop, conduct a search of the vehicle. This paper discusses racial profiling in the context of the articles mentioned in the list of references in a concise and comprehensive way.

Racial Profiling: A Comprehensive Discussion

Parker, et al (2004) mentions preliminary evidence suggests that a correlation exists at least between the race of the driver and the probability of being stopped and searched. However, the race of the motorist does not appear to affect the probability of receiving an actual citation.

There is a small but compelling body of literature supporting the assertion that race plays an important role in a police officer's decision to stop and/or search a motorist. Most of the evidence in support of this assertion either is anecdotal or relies on statistical comparisons of the disparity between the proportions of minorities in a population and those stopped by the police and/or subjected to a vehicle search (Parker, et al, 2004). These studies indicate that the proportions of minorities stopped by the police are higher than their proportional representation in the community or among licensed drivers.

Even though some disparity exists between the proportions of minority drivers and those actually issued citations for bona fide violations of the traffic law, this disparity does not appear to be substantial. Comparisons between the racial proportions of licensed drivers and those actually issued tickets, convicted for violating traffic laws, or both, do not appear to indicate a wide (i.e., statistically significant) disparity. Of more concern is the apparent disparity between racial groups with respect to the probability of being subjected to a vehicle search pursuant to a traffic stop. The available research indicates that minorities in general, and blacks in particular, are more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists.

The most salient question, once a disparate pattern of this nature is identified, is to ask why it is occurring so regularly and consistently. So far, three potential explanations have been proposed.

Most police administrators would be quick to dismiss racism within the police organization as a plausible explanation. Indeed, most of the research indicates that extralegal factors (including race, class, gender, and age) do not affect police decision making significantly. There is some limited evidence, however, suggesting that some ...