Analysis of Racial Profiling by Police and Law Enforcement

Analysis of Racial profiling by Police and Law enforcement

Of all ethical issues facing the criminal justice system today, one of the most difficult issues to iron out is whether race plays any part in criminal statistics and whether or not racial discrimination should be utilized in some cases based on statistics. I believe the most unbridled and rampant usage of racial discrimination is racial profiling, which I dare call racial discrimination because it uses certain parameters namely race as a main parameter to profile offenders or potential offenders and thus places a distinct discrimination between different races based solely on crime statistics (which I might mention a great deal of the time are totally mechanical figures that do not take mitigating circumstances into account).

In the present day United States, one does not have to delve too deep to find fitting examples of the issues I am talking about here. For example: Picture a scenario where there is a stolen property report filed at a police station. The city is Philadelphia and the property is a motor vehicle. Taking a second scenario; Picture in New York people getting taken out from amazing distances with a high caliber long range rifle. In the first scenario, it would be almost certain that the visualized suspect would be black. In the New York sniper case however, reports show that initial “intelligence” claimed that the suspect was thought to be an older white male possibly a Vietnam veteran. The arrest showed that he was indeed a man of African American descent.

The point of my paper will be to study the issue of racial profiling in an attempt to analyze its use as a tool for criminal justice rather than an issue that merely creates financial opportunities for lawyers. Is racial profiling a reasonable means of assessing a criminal case? Do the statistics hold water in determining anything at all?

Racial profiling does not only affect the victim from my point of view. How long has the CIA harassed Americans of Arabic descent since the fateful 9/11and then accidentally stumbled across a die-hard Alkaeda follower who has been full blooded American? Some of these people only got caught because they attempted some outrageous stunt or the other which would cause even their Arabic counterparts to take a step back and analyze. Does racial profiling blindside law enforcement agents and lead them on wild goose chases at times? Viewing the statistics, I believe so.

In recent years, there has been a growth in public concern over police decision-making practices during traffic enforcement. Catch phrases such as "racial profiling," "driving while Black," and "driving while brown" typify the public's concern that race and ethnicity have undue influence on police discretion. A study analyzed traffic stop data from a medium-sized mid-western community to better understand this facet of police behavior. Although the authors contend that "proving" racial profiling may be outside of current empirical capabilities, useful insights can still be obtained by examining broader aspects of traffic enforcement behaviors. The analysis indicated that race was powerful in shaping police decision-making patterns, but so were gender, age, and situational considerations (Schafer, J. A. Carter, D. L.; Katz-Bannister, A. J. Decision making in traffic stop encounters: A multivariate analysis of police behavior Police Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 184-209, 2006)

It has been argued by many police departments upon questioning that even though race plays a major part either subliminally or boldly, so does age gender, size and other physical factors, however, it is important to note that gender, size and age are all subsets under the general race of a person and so if race is being considered, a large population is being discriminated against.

Data was collected by the Maryland State Police (MSP) between 1995 and 1997 and consisted of 1,914 searches where motorists gave consent. Overall, the analyses suggest that race may be an effective tool in identifying serious drug offenders. In particular, a racial profile for identifying those in possession of large quantities of marijuana and cocaine may be effective. Nevertheless, it does not follow that such a profile is lawful or in the best interest of the public (Police Practice & Research: An International Journal, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 49-60, 2006)

Municipal police departments are given the authority to make their own rules of arrest and incarceration. These rules are merely treated as procedure and operations guidelines. According t the New York times, An Midwestern police department just lost a lawsuit brought against it by a citizen