Racial Profiling & Biased Policing

“Racial Profiling Is Wrong and Will

Not Be Tolerated”
- Department of Justice
 Objectives
• Define Racial Profiling and Biased Policing
• Identify the significance of Racial Profiling and
Biased Policing
 Racial Profiling
• “Any police-initiated action that relies on the
race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than;
1. the behavior of an individual, or
2. on information that leads the police to a
particular individual who has been
identified as being, or having been,
engaged in criminal activity”¹
-
Racial Profiling (cont.)
 Racial Profiling (cont.)
• Examples:
– “Driving while black” (Police stop an African-
American for driving a late-model Mercedes)
– “Being in the wrong neighborhood” (Police
question an Hispanic for being in a traditionally
“White” neighborhood)
 Racial Profiling (cont.)
• Racial profiling dates back to WWII
• Racial Profiling was initially used by the DEA and
Customs Service to catch drug couriers
• Used “personal indicators” that seemed to be
associated with law violations
• Indicators included: “speaking Spanish, traveling
from a particular Central or South American Country,
being 18-32 years old, purchasing tickets with cash
and having planned a short stay in the U.S.”²
 Racial Profiling (cont.)
• In 2003 the Department of Justice banned
racial profiling except in the cases of
identifying possible terrorists.
• According to Amnesty International “26 states
have no law explicitly prohibiting racial
profiling. 46 states do not ban racial profiling
based on religion or religious appearance.”
• NY State has NO LAWS banning racial profiling.
 Racial Profiling (cont.)
• Racial Profiling is ineffective.
• “A survey by the Department of Justice in 1999 reveled
that while officers disproportionately focused on African
American and Latino drivers, they found drugs more
often when they searched whites (17%) than when they
searched African Americans (8%). A similar survey in
New Jersey found that although people of color were
searched more frequently, state troopers found drugs in
vehicles driven by whites 25% of the time, by African
Americans 13%, and by Latinos 5%.”³
 Racial Profiling (cont.)
• “According to a study of the US Customs
Service's practice by Lamberth Consulting,
when Customs agents stopped using racial
profiling to target potential smugglers and
began focusing on race-neutral factors such as
behavior, they increased the rate of
productive searches by more than 300%.”³
 Biased Policing
• “Biased Policing means the practice of singling
out or treating differently any person on the
basis of race, ethnicity, national origin,
religion, age, gender, gender identity, or sexual
orientation.” – Denver Police Department
 Biased Policing (cont.)
• Similar to Racial Profiling
• Broader definition (includes gender, age,
sexual orientation, etc.)
• PERF (Police Executive Research Forum) has
created recommendations to help maintain
professional standards (performing “spot
checks” of video tapes, radio transmissions
and reports)
 Summary
• Racial Profiling and Biased Policing doesn’t
work!
• Racial Profiling and Biased Policing is not
ethical!
• Both practices diminish productivity and
destroy community relation efforts.
 More Information
• PERF
http://www.policeforum.org/
• Amnesty International
http://www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights
/racial-profiling/

• Department of Justice
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/rac
ial_profiling_fact_sheet.pdf