In order to complete the Portfolio Project, I have chosen the topic “Racial Profiling by the Police: What are the Critics Missing” for my research. Racial profiling, like many aspects of criminal justice has its opponents and supports. Opponents of racial profiling, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the define racial profiling as the “discriminatory practice of law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race or ethnicity” (ACLU, 2015). Racial profiling critics argue that police, rather than basing their actions on an analysis of the facts and circumstances in the determination of probable cause or reasonable suspicion, as required by the Constitution; it allows police to make arbitrary and discriminatory choices that necessarily result in the disproportionate arrest or detention of African American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern men (LC, 2011). This occurs despite the fact that these grouping are as likely or even less likely as be involved in criminal acts as whites. Racial profiling, in essence, amounts to the unconstitutional denial of the equal protection of the law to the targeted groups.
On the other hand, racial profiling supporters argue that is simply another means law enforcement officials make use of to proactively stop crime by focusing on specific groups that have been determined to more likely be involved in criminal acts. For supporters, the emphasis of racial profiling should also be on profiling. Profiling refers to the analysis of: crime data, statistics and information that has been compiled over a set period of time, academic studies, commonly occurring patterns, and the experiences of the law enforcement community to develop the model of a typical criminal suspect (Ebisike, 2007). That model is then distributed to law enforcement officers to apply in their work to help them make educated guesses on who is most likely to be involved in criminal activity. Accordingly, like other types of profiling such as geographic profiling which analyzes where crimes tend to occur to create a model of where they are likely to occur in the future; racial profiling focuses of race and ethnicity as the focus of analysis (Ebisike, 2007). In essence, racial profiling is the application of common knowledge of crime obtained over a number or years and through thousands of criminal investigations to provide police with a picture of the individuals that are most likely to be involved in crime in a particular situation or circumstance.
I chose this specific topic to research for several reasons. First, I consider it an extremely timely topic. Indeed, over the last few years racial profiling has been one of the more intensely debated topics in criminal justice. Racial profiling has even attracted the attention of President Obama, who is a speech late last year admitted that he himself has been a subject of racial profiling when he stated, “I’ve been pulled over for no reason” (Bendery, 2015). It is also likely, that racial profiling will continue to be an important topic of discussion in this year’s primary and presidential elections. Second, racial profiling is a topic that is fundamental to the job of a police officer. Police officer are required to base their decisions on their analysis of the surroundings. Consequently, they necessarily have to make use of some profiling tactics in how they approach their daily duties. Accordingly, further research, analysis, and discussion must be performed on racial profiling rather than simply allowing the public to believe without thought that racial profiling is necessarily discriminatory. My hope is that my research will positively add to the debate about racial profiling.
References
Bendery, J. (2015, Oct. 27). Obama on racial profiling: I’ve been pulled over for no reason too. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-racial-profiling_us_562fde34e4b00aa54a4ba5f2
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (2015). Racial profiling: Definition. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/racial-profiling-definition
Ebisike, N. (2007). The use of offender profiling evidence in criminal cases. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&content=theses
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LC). (2011, Mar.). Restoring a national consensus: The need to end racial profiling in America. Retrieved from http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/racial-profiling2011/racial_profiling2011.pdf
