Do you think racial profiling exists in Law Enforcement agencies? explain your answer and give examples!?

Answer 1

Some probably use it.

Answer 2

There are many kinds of profiling done in law enforcement. Without doing some sort of profiling it is nearly impossible to do adequate work to maintain the public safety. I will introduce you to a new term shortly.

If someone steals a car and witnesses say the person was a tall, skinny, white guy with a baseball cap then whom should police start looking for? It would make sense to pay extra attention to tall, skinny, white men and particularly anyone wearing a hat. Is this racial profiling? It is called criminal profiling and that is what police do everyday.

Now you can substitute "racial" with "criminal". Criminal profiling is the combination of all known information about a suspect(s) that help limit the scope of an investigation and thus give law enforcement a better idea of where to put their resources in order to maximize their chance of success in solving a particular crime. Whew, that was a long, run-on sentence!

Just remember that law enforcement resources are no different than that of any other government agency or private business, they are limited. Limited resources have to be used effectively and profiling is a necessary component to achieve success with these resources.

Criminal profiling also saves precious time and often this is a key to solving a crime or saving a life.

Answer 3

It is does exist. This is a simple fact.

My reasoning: You can't ignore the evidence (see below).

Here is some information:
This website has personal testimonies of racial profiling, updated news on the act to stop racial profiling, questions and answers, an executive summary etc.. And it's from Amnesty International, how much more reliable can you get?
http://www.amnestyusa.org/racial_profiling/report/index.html

This website has a list of press releases about racial profiling. It is from the American Civil Liberties Union:
http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/index.html

This website provides some explanations and statistics:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28138.html

This website has a video/episode on racial profiling that you can watch:
http://www.aclu.tv/episodes/racialprofiling?PHPSESSID=36d5472d468bb8910f984a6050e8bd9b

This is the website for the racial profiling data collection center:
http://www.racialprofilinganalysis.neu.edu/

Another website with statistics:
http://www.flexyourrights.org/racial_profiling

Racial profiling is harmful because it supports continued oppression. It is not justified because many people have been treated unjustly because of it. The only reason some people are statistically higher to commit certain crimes is because they are more likely to be arrested, it is circular logic. And the majority group is generally not racially profiled.

Answer 4

Do I think it happens? Yes.
Police are not immune to being, or knowing victims of crimes. They are not above victimizing others either.
Who's an easier prey to victimize?
I (white) was driving a pos dented car (which I was stubbornly going to extract every mile out of) belonging to my daughter. It was registered to a professional (abbreviated preceding my name). I was stopped for a trumped up registration check. Kept for 45 min, at the side of the road, while they ran all my stuff. Would probably have been arrested ( it would have come back as mistaken identity, the next day ). It took a phone call to a police chief friend, who called the stopping dept's chief. Suddenly (1 am) they find their mistake.
The next day I paid a visit to the dept. introduced my self. "Why are you driving that ?" I explained how it was a gift which was destroyed by a college kid. I was explained that sometimes, at the discretion of the stopping officer, the veracity of the info can be over ridden, at the scene of the stop. So I was economicly profiled. My friends at the YC, said "isn't profiling special". Very weird, I unintentionally affected them politically.
The problem with profiling is that the myopic view keeps them from seeing the truth. Who knows what was going on for the 45min with 2 cruisers tied up?

Answer 5

No. Racial profiling is a politically correct buzz word used by any non-white that gets questioned by police or arrested for any crime they commit.

1) If 90% of people pulled over are in black, and 90% of the people in that town are black, it is the law of probability, not profiling.
2) If a robbery suspect is described as a "black male" by several witnesses, there is no reason for the police to look for or question a white male for that particular crime.

My white father works nights. He often gets pulled over on his way home (around 2:30 AM) by police for a "routine check". How come he cannot cry "foul" over it, but a black man in the same situation can?

Answer 6

Often times racial profiling is confused with criminal profiling. I think racial profiling is prevalant in law enforcement, but remember the job of police is to profile crime.

Answer 7

As an officer, I can gladly report that "racial profiling" does not exist in my own department.

There are those who attempt to say they were stopped because the officer was racist or "profiling." Of course, telling somebody that radar caught them speeding as they approached with their highbeams headlights, refusing to dim, on the darkest road....well...I guess my superman vision enabled me to see they were of another ethnic background.

I agree that people have "prejudices" but prejudices are not solely applicable to ones ethic origin. To say law enforcement "racially profiles," it has in the past, and maybe not totally eliminated, but with the many watchdog organizations keeping tabs...helps prevent it.

Answer 8

To a degree it probably does in very serious cases but do not confuse the term racial profiling with racism. It can be carried out on white as well as any other skin colour.

Answer 9

yes it does exist in law enforcement. Your best place to look for examples is news articles relating to the New Jersey state police. They have had a horrible reputation for using this tactic.

As much as it is morally wrong, sometimes it can be effective.

Answer 10

Of course it exists with law enforcement. Law enforcement is part of the human community. Humans profile others 24 hours a day. It's human nature to do so.

For instance, after reading your question, it lowered my opinion of your intelligence. I profiled you as a result of the evidence offered, which was quite convincing.

Answer 11

yes Racial Profiling exists in law enforcement, but they dont stop them because they are just black. they look at them because they are black or asian or latino but they stop them because they see them do something wrong or they look like someone they are looking for