Racial Profiling
In law enforcement, a profile is a set of general characteristics and features that are defined as being suspicious. For example, if a series of bank robberies occur involving young men in leather jackets, neighborhood police may profile young men in leather jackets. This means that the police will view people fitting this description as more likely suspects. In turn, the police will be more likely to stop and question young men wearing leather jackets than people meeting other descriptions. Racial profiling is the use of racial generalizations or stereotypes as a basis for stopping, searching, or questioning an individual. In contrast with profiling in general, racial profiling raises serious issues about the civil rights of individuals who are stopped only because they appear to be of a particular race. Some experts preferthe term "racially biased policing" because of difficulties in precisely defining racial profiling.
Racial profiling plays a role in the enforcement of drug laws. For example, the Drug Enforcement Agency uses racial profiling to target people transporting drugs at airports. On the nation's roads and highways, local law-enforcement officers may use a minor traffic violation as an excuse to stop a car and then ask for consent to search the car for drugs. Officers target black drivers more often than white drivers, yet studies show that searches of black drivers are no more likely to turn up drugs than searches of white drivers.
Efforts to halt racial profiling are now in place in many states. In 1999 President Bill Clinton ordered all federal agencies to study their law-enforcement practices in order to end racial profiling where it was found to be in use. During 2000 more than twenty-five states introduced measures dealing with racial profiling by law-enforcement officers, with eighteen states taking significant action. Eight states (California, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington) ultimately passed racial profiling legislation. Efforts to achieve bias-free policing include improving supervision of officers and holding them accountable; improving recruitment and hiring procedures; educating and training police staff; improving outreach to minority communities; and collecting and analyzing data about the race or ethnicity of citizens in their contact with police. Many cities and states are struggling with lawsuits resulting from the heightened awareness of racial profiling. A well-publicized racial profiling suit, brought against the city of Cincinnati and its police department in 2001, was settled in early 2002 after much community involvement. Some fear, however, that in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, racial profiling will continue and may be harder to end than was once hoped.
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