Racial profiling has led police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic stops, especially those dealing with African American Males. Racial profiling is defined as discriminating against someone based on their race, ethnicity, religion, nationality or denying someone their basic rights and freedom. Due to racial profiling “driving while black” is now a common household name. The controversy has been supported by research that some police officers may be racially biased when they stop people of color. Reneaur (2010) studied the consensus and conflict theory concerning racial disparities in the rate of police stops. When it comes with patterns of street stops, traffic stops and probable cause and consent searches the study suggested that both police deployment and race out of place played a significant role in explaining racial profiling.
The purpose of the study was to determine if minorities are often stopped more often than whites. The researcher submitted these two theories, consensus and conflict, to explain police stop and search. Although empirical data on racial profiling is scarce, the conflict theory suggests that police may indeed target minorities when conducting traffic stops or field interrogations (Petrocelli, 2003). Racial profiling is a concern because it’s a type of discrimination enacted and ordered by federal and local governments. Law enforcement bases profiling on data that suggest some races are more likely to commit certain crimes than others – especially in certain situations. According to the study racial profiling might occur late at night when a minority may be in a neighborhood that is entirely White. The driver can be doing something as innocent as looking for someone address, but the color of his or her skin makes the person looks “suspicious” This study was based on 206,083 stops and 38,493 searches in 94 neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, citizens calls for service, disadvantage, prior violent crime suspect rates, time of day and spatial autocorrelation.
The Empirical Evidence suggests that both the police deployment and race out of place perspectives appear relevant. However, the support for the social conditioning was inconsistent, because Black violent crime suspect rates were significantly related to Black stop and search rates (Renauer, 2012). The study suggests there is an inconsistency with police officers stopping minority because of discrimination versus Whites however due to other mitigating and how much is due to other factors it is challenging to untangle these. Racial profiling has been part of the U.S. justice as long as there has been a criminal justice system in America. While little has been done to root out the problem, considerable improvement has been done in how police officers treat people of color. The technique of profiling is a well-known and long-standing law enforcement tactic, but the term ‘racial profiling’ first became associated with a method of interdicting drug traffickers in the late 1970s (Khoury, 2008). Most police officers say they are not profiling African American Males but just doing their job. That could be true if committing crimes where only exclusive to blacks.
There are several studies that support conflict theory and racial profiling in jurisdictions where data is available. According to Ibe (2012), in a New Jersey study while black and Hispanic motorists made up only 13.5 percent of the drivers on that state's highways, they represented 73.2 percent of those stopped and searched by the New Jersey State Patrol. Due to public pressure of racial profiling President George W. Bush signed an executive order in 2001 banning the use of race, color, and ethnicity to profile suspects in 70 different federal agencies (United States Department of Justice, 2003). When someone is stopped simply because of the color of their skin it sends the wrong message to society and creates mistrust in the criminal justice system because police officers cannot effectively protect our communities.
When you are stopped for the suspicion of a crime, you have rights under the Fourth Amendment that protect against arbitrary arrests, and is the basis of the law regarding search warrants, and stop-and-frisk. If a police officer suspected you may commit, about to commit a crime of having committed a crime they have the right to search your vehicle. Once pulled over if the police officer sees something illegal in plain sight he can search your vehicle without your permission. Mainly African Americans are the ones that are stopped and searched without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Novak (2012) affirmed that racial disparities in stopping and/or ticketing have been found to be present in urban jurisdictions. Novak (2012) goes on to say that urban areas tend to have larger numbers and concentrations of racial minorities than do nonurban areas, and perhaps this concentration of threat populations increases the application of social control that focuses on members of racial minority groups. Some stops are legitimate and race does not play a factor in the stop however others are based on factors such as the race of the individual, what type of vehicle that is being driven, and are there any other passengers in the car. Recent Supreme Court decisions have begun to allow the police to use traffic stops as a pretext in order to "fish" for evidence. Both anecdotal and quantitative data show that nationwide, the police exercise this discretionary power primarily against African Americans and Latinos (Harris, 1999).
There is no shortage of evidence supporting that minority males are stopped more than their white counterparts. According to Renauer (2012), the results of this study support this contention, the strength of consensus and conflict perspective variables in explaining social control fluctuated according to the dependent variable (stops or searches), and race/ethnicity. When minorities feel they are being racial profiled it robs them of their dignity, undermines the honesty of the criminal justice system and causes apprehension and mistrust among people of a certain race. There are law enforcement jurisdictions that are allowing researchers to help them improve their relationships with people of color by studying their policing practices. They are trying to increase the level of trust that society has in them while controlling crime successfully.
Police are responsibility for servicing our neighborhoods on a daily bases. They deserve our respect and support, but when they abuse their power, they can also wreak havoc on people especially those of colors Society must be empowered with knowledge and take the necessary steps to deal with racial profiling or other abuses of police power when they occur. The practice of racial profiling creates problems in our society it denies people especially minorities their basic rights. It is a form of harassment and lets minorities know they are under constant surveillance by the police. Racial profiling cannot be used as a mean to control crime there has to be a better way of policing that respects all races.