Abstract
For many years law enforcement have policed African Americans and other minorities differently than they would police whites. Often times, it is communities that are heavily populated by African Americans and minorities that are subject to the harsher styles of policing as well as targets of law enforcement policies. Past literature reviews have indicated that the reason for this is because of racial policing and very rarely because of the suspicion of some sort of wrongdoing. The purpose of this study is to see if in fact African Americans and other minorities are treated differently than whites. We also want to know, what are police departments and other forms of law enforcement doing to make sure that their employees are remaining racially unbiased while they are conducting their work.
There are three main policing styles that are commonly used by today’s law enforcement. Those three styles being, a legalistic style, a watchman style and lastly a service style. These different styles of policing are different in many ways but they all share the main goal of protecting and serving their respective community. In a legalistic style of policing law enforcement conduct themselves, as well as their work, in a professional manner. Law enforcement does everything by the book in this style of policing and would never do anything that could be viewed as unethical. In a watchman style of policing, they focus on maintain order. The watchman style of policing generally occurs in heavily populated communities, like cities, that frequently have a high number of calls for police assistance. This is the style of policing where you are more likely to find police officers who do not work by the book and who also may do things that their department or community would deem unethical. Most police departments conduct some sort of watchman style of policing but for some this is their main operating style. The service style of policing usually occurs in middle and upper middle class communities. In this style of policing there is a big emphasis on community opinion and having a relationship with the community. In a community where this style of policing could be found the types of crime that are likely to occur are, violations of a person’s privacy, burglary and robbery. As you can see all of these styles of policing differentiate from each other but all three have the same goal in mind.
In a study that was conducted in 1995, data was constructed by merging data sets from two primary sources. The first set of data came from a survey of suburban police departments in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area. The second set of data came from the Census Bureau on the communities in which these departments are located from the County and City Data Book. In the study, Rabe-Hemp, Wells and Falcone (2003) reported that the size of the community does in fact play an important role in how policing organizations are set up and operated. Another finding that came out of this survey was that community characteristics have little predictive influence on whether, and how, community policing is adopted in a certain community. This means that the decision as to whether or not that style of policing will be used in a certain community is based solely on the head of that police department. Community policing is not a style of policing that can be practiced in every community. It is a style of policing that is sensitive, to it’s surroundings which can vary from community to community. Based on just this study, the researchers expressed that community policing should not be implemented in all communities. Where community policing is more likely to take place is in communities that are either crowded or over populated. Communities that are overly crowded and populated are more likely to have a higher number of crimes, which then results in police departments wanting a more hands on approach to policing. More often than not, these crowded communities are likely to be inhabited by African Americans and minorities.
The heated relationship between African Americans and the police dates back many years. It is said that modern policing was used to keep African Europeans in ghettos in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. This has also become the case in America (Robinson, 2017). Researchers argue that the possibility for police misconduct increases in communities that are economically challenged and in communities where residents tend to be ethnic minorities Cashmore & McLaughlin, 2013). In a study, it was found that a disproportionate amount of brutality had been inflicted on African Americans and other ethnic minorities in disadvantaged communities when they were in contact with law enforcement (Cashmore & McLaughlin, 2013). The unnecessary use of force that Africans Americans could possibly face when coming in contact with law enforcement is one of the main factors, if not the biggest factor, in the reason why African Americans and other minorities have a more negative perception of police than White Americans. It is said that the air of superiority is what gives law enforcement authority to police minorities by any mean necessary. Minorities are often the targets of unjust laws and bills, which give law enforcement more opportunities to have interactions with them. An example of this would be when President Nixon’s former aid, John Ehrlichman undeniably stated that the war on drugs targeted African Americans and Latinos. The government, along with law enforcement, is targeting low-income communities knowing that is where most minorities are likely to live. The government and law enforcement are not policing middle class and upper class communities like this even though the same problems consist there.
When it comes to police interactions, African American males are often found to have disproportionate contact with the police including disproportionate pedestrian stops along with traffic stops (Kahn, Steele, McMahon & Stewart, 2016). In a study, they sought to see if officer use of force, both lethal and nonlethal, comes as a product of nonracial situational factors or officer racial attitudes. Police force is to be applied when there is a power difference in any given situation that is in favor of the suspect and puts the officer, and the community, at a disadvantage or in harms way. It is often implied that suspect resistance has been used when police force has also been used but that is not always the case. Questionably, perceived threat to an officer can also justify police force that too can vary by situation as well as suspect race.
Using real world police suspect use-of-force data and controlling for relevant suspect and case variables, the study proved that both African Americans and Latino suspects received higher levels of police force earlier in interactions. White suspects escalated in force at a greater rate after the initial force levels compared to other minorities. It can be concluded that racial stereotypes play a role during initial actions when a suspect and officer first come into contact with each other. The racial stereotypes that are associating African Americans and other minorities with danger are the reason their levels of force are higher than whites at the beginning stages of an interaction. This can sometimes make a suspect feel threatened or in need of a force for themselves to control resulting in a dangerous situation. The reason why the level of force lessens over the course of the interaction with minorities is because officers begin to take their information and case specific details are obtained which begins to override the racial stereotypes. Another reason why the initial levels of force are high in interactions with minorities is because officers often feel the need to take charge early with them since they are anticipating some level of resistance or noncompliance (Kahn, Steele, McMahon & Stewart, 2016). Researchers have said that some police officers see this as an ethical way to control a situation or establish power whether it is necessary or not. This policing tactic is more likely to enrage a suspect than to make them want to cooperate with the police. Police officers should never arrive onto a scene already knowing the level of force that they will be using unless they are told to do so. Along with a high level of force upon first interaction, African American and minority men also receive significantly more force than white men when resisting arrest. Researchers say this pattern may be because officers view resistance from Blacks and other minorities as more threatening or dangerous, and in need of more control. The police’s use of force with African Americans and minorities only makes the relationship between the two worst. Since a responding officer’s first instance is to use a heightened use of force when interacting with an African American or a minority, it makes them noncompliant and defiant when seeing or interacting with the police especially if the responding officer is white (Kahn, Steele, McMahon & Stewart, 2016).
Terrill and Reisig (2003) have suggested that if officers tend to view minorities as individuals associated with an increased likelihood of violence, then it may also be that officers apply a similar, and even more powerful framework around geographic space. Researchers have also correlated perceptions of dangerous places with high rates of crime while other researchers have suggested that this relationship is not so clear and instead, race and disadvantage have stronger explanatory value than neighborhood crime (Terrill and Reisig, 2003). Whether it is because of their race, neighborhood or even a combination of the two, the experience of a negative encounter with law enforcement remains a disproportionate burden for minorities (Brunson and Miller, 2006). In a study conducted by Mastrofski (2002) that examined police disrespect towards the public, which included neighborhood measure of concentrated disadvantage, resulted in an unexpected finding that whites were significantly more likely to receive disrespect. However, after he then compared the rates of disrespect for minorities and whites, and found that minorities were twice as likely to receive disrespect from the police. Mastrofski and other scholars have argues that one of the most harmful elements of aggressive policing strategies is their disproportionate targeting of both minority citizens and poor minority communities. Brunson and Miller (2003) are quoted saying,
“ These more aggressive procedures increase hostility toward the police in inner-city neighborhoods and among those minority groups who are the primary targets of these proactive tactics …. Such tactics involve the extensive use of police discretion and provide multiple opportunities for the abuse of authority …. One result of these aggressive police tactics is the stopping and questioning of many random, innocent persons.”
One of the most aggressive policing tactics to take place during today’s era is the famous stop-question-and-frisk program that took place in New York City between 2003 and 2013. What this program did was allow the New York City Police Department to temporarily detain, question and at times search civilians on the streets for weapons and contraband. Although this is most notable for taking place in New York City, it was also taking place throughout the United Sates where it was known as a Terry Stop. In an analysis of policing in New York City (Brunson and Miller, 2003), not only did researchers find that blacks were being stopped fives times the rate that whites were being stopped, but they also discovered that the ratio for stops to arrests were significantly higher for blacks than whites. This discovery further proved that this practice was more indiscriminate for blacks because of suspicion due to the color of their skin.
Often times, studies that show African Americans are not actually the victim of unjust police behavior stand correct because the sample of individuals for the study are made up of adults. When the studies include juveniles they become more accurate because African American juveniles make up a disproportionately large size of the population that are subject to police contacts and arrests (Brunson and Miller, 2003). Minority juveniles are also more likely to have a negative interaction with the police than white juveniles. As a result of this, minority juveniles develop negative attitudes toward the police in which they often carry with themselves throughout a lifetime causing a ripple effect whenever they are in contact with the police later on in their life. Even if a minority juveniles’ interaction with the police was not a negative interaction but the juvenile feels as if their interaction was a result of racial profiling, they are still likely to carry a negative image of the police with them throughout their life (Brunson and Miller, 2003). In a journal, Brunson and Miller (2003) highlight the importance of procedural justice. The two researchers state that when individuals believe the police exercised their work using fair procedures and respectful with their treatment of the individuals they were interacting with, the individuals were less likely to develop a negative view of police officers and more understanding of the situation. It is the basic concept of people giving out the same treatment they received.
In 2003, researchers Hernandez-Murillo and Knowles examined the “2001 Annual Report on Missouri Traffic Stops,” to determine if the reasoning behind minority motorists being stopped at a higher rate than their white counter parts was because of racial profiling or racial policing. The “2001 Annual Report on Missouri Traffic Stops”, summarizes data from January through December for approximately 91 percent of the 668 law enforcement agencies in Missouri. Before doing their research and looking over the statistics, the two researchers expected minority motorists would be stopped and searched at a higher. Upon first glance of the statistics, it was clear that the researchers were not wrong with their prediction. Many researchers before them had believed that minority motorists are more likely to be in the wrong, resulting in more nonrandom motor vehicle stops. Based off of their research, Hernandez-Murillo and Knowles (2003) discovered that searches of minority motorists are less likely to be successful with a significantly lower probability of drugs or other contraband being obtained.
In their research, the researchers found strong evidence in support of racial bias against African American motorists, even when controlling for both the sex and age of the motorists. What this means is that even if the motorist were to be a female African American, they would still be likely to receive some kind of racial bias. In their research, law enforcement’s racial bias did not discriminate to the different kinds of African Americans. To conclude their research, Hernandez-Murillo and Knowles state that search rates for African Americans and Hispanic motorists would decline substantially if racial profiling were eliminated from all forms of policing in Missouri. Even if the search rate of just African American motorists were decreased by as little as 18%, it would bring law enforcement’s success rate on searches of African Americans equal to that of white motorists. They suggest that this could be done though a race-blind policy for the Missouri law enforcement.