Racial Profiling In The Miami-Dade Police Department

Law enforcement agencies. The Government. Their job is to protect our country from any evil and keep us safe. Criminals are a big issue in our lives today, and law enforcement officers are trying to capture every single one of them. But, how are they going to stop these criminals when police officers are putting lives in danger? Racial profiling is practice by law enforcements officers by targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. Although racial profiling may seem as a good technique, law enforcement officers are violating laws and endangering lives when affected. Racial profiling should not be accepted as law enforcement practice because it severely hampers citizen’s civil liberties, is unconstitutional, and has an effect on victims’ lives.

Racial profiling can occur when law officials use race to as a basis to suspicion in non-specific investigations. Creating a profile about the different kinds of minorities who commit certain types of crimes may lead officers to focus more on a particular group and act according to the general stereotype rather than particular behavior. An example of racial profiling could be the use of race to regulate which pedestrians to search for illegal goods or the use of race to regulate which drivers to stop for traffic violations, stopping mostly black or brown colored minorities. Stopping black drivers, just to see what law enforcement might discover, has become so frequent in some places that it has it’s own name: driving while black. A year-long study conducted by the Domestic Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA found that the unlawful use of race in police, immigration, and airport security procedures has expanded since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The study further found that state laws provide insufficient and inconsistent protection against

Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer. It is possible that minority citizens are more likely to perceive racial profiling when stopped by a white officer than they would be if the officer were a minority (Cochran & Warren,

Antonovics, Kate and Brian G. Knight. 2009. “A New Look at Racial Profiling: Evidence From the Boston Police Department.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 91(1): 163-177.

Racial profiling is a problem across the entire nation in law enforcement. In every community it differs to who is being oppressed, and it usually depends on the type of race and ethnicity the community holds. As to us, our culture and setting consist of a high percentage of hispanics and latinos, so here comes to our problem as to who is being targeted mostly in our racist issues with the police brutally.

This is a way for the public to differentiate whether police are just doing their job to protect and serve or if their stop was racially motivated. This solution could be executed by states taking the initiative to pass bills to enable a practice such as this one. One solution that can be beneficial to minorities and law enforcement agencies as well is the implementation of classes that display the basis of accurate policing. Such classes could steer future police officers away from the practice of racial profiling and hopefully eliminate any racial bias and stereotypes that may be instilled within them. If higher powers in states such as mayors and police chiefs step up and make these type of classes and workshops mandatory for all police forces, the issue of racial profiling will be one step closer to being completely

Racial profiling by law enforcement is an overwhelmingly useless and prevalent expression of hate and ignorance to this day. Internationally, a wide variation of races are unrightfully discriminated against by the enforcements who are supposedly there to protect them. Jim Crow policing is an issue that undoubtedly continues, no matter the amount of riots or unjustly arrested/ murdered civilians. Cases like Trayvon Martin, and Mike Brown, as well as Bob Herbert 's article Jim Crow Policing published in the New York Times, February 2nd 2010, explain first hand accounts and statistics to give examples of the fact that racial profiling from the police force consistently takes place.

Black Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to be unarmed when they are shot and killed by police officers, according to a study published in the Journal of Criminology and Public Policy. In addition, the study finds that racial bias is a contributing factor (Schumaker). How does racial bias influence police brutality? Defined, “Police brutality is the use of excessive physical or verbal assault during police procedures, such as apprehending or interrogating a suspect. Deadly force is not always excessive force. However, when deadly force exceeds the force that is necessary to create a safe environment, it is considered police brutality.” The United States has an abhorrent history embracing racial relations. Police brutality has historically been perpetrated against individuals in lower socioeconomic levels and the social marginalized. It has been permitted against citizens who have participated in strikes during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s by spraying them down with hoses and attacking them with police dogs. This behavior has been motivated by racial stereotypes. Many police officers believe blacks are more violent than other races, and this image has been reflected in media quite often. These stereotypes are rooted in the sordid history of enslavement, genocide, and segregation. Although, stereotypes are not entirely the problem that encourages police brutality. Rampant discrimination and disparate treatment of certain minorities in the judicial

Racial profiling has had great effects on African American communities all over the US. Victims of racial profiling incidents and people who have witnessed have begun to fear and hate the police when they should be trusting that they are there to keep them safe. Many incidents have occured in the US where unarmed black individuals have been brutally killed by the hands of white police or have been pulled over when driving because they have commited the crime of “driving while black”, which in today's world has become something that African Americans have to fear because of the likeliness of them being pulled over by police, because of their racial bias towards them. “Driving while black” is something that black families tell their kids to be careful of at a young age because of their own experiences with police. In between 2007-2010, people of colored skin accounted for 75 percent of the people stopped by Boston police and 65 percent of them were black in a city whose population was made up of 25 percent African Americans at that time. After all these high profile police shootings and many African Americans getting stopped everyday just because of the color of their skin, relationships between police and African American communities are not very good. Many protests have occurred in the US where African Americans have came

How would you think someone felt if they were stopped by officers based on their looks? Racial profiling has been a problem for a long time. Racial profiling is when a law enforcement official believes someone committed an offense based on that person 's ethnicity, race, religion and national origin. A form of policing that is usually used in law enforcement is the Terry Stop or the Stop-question and frisk method. This is a method where people are stopped and suspected of doing a crime. According to some charts mainly African American, latino and other minority races are the most common to be stopped by officers because of stereotypes. The Constitution, through the fourth amendment, protects people from unreasonable search and seizure by the

Thesis statement: Racial profiling is an ongoing issue that is caused by a variety of factors; there are solutions that can be implemented to stop inequality against innocent African Americans.

Racial profiling can cause multiple problems. Several law enforcement agencies have gone through expensive litigation over civil rights concerns. Police-citizen relations in those communities have been strained, making policing all the more challenging. Most importantly, racial profiling is unlikely to be an effective policing strategy as criminals can simply shift their activities outside the profile (e.g., if racial profiling begins with police stopping black males in their teens and twenties. The "cumulative impact of racial discrimination accounts for the special, way that blacks have of looking at and evaluating" their experiences in public encounters (Feagin, 1991:115). For example, descriptions of black citizens ' mistreatment by the police are abundant in some African-American communities. Regardless of their accuracy, the dissemination of these narratives increases the likelihood that neighborhood residents will come to view local policing strategies as racially biased (Weitzer, 2002). Feagin 's (1991) examination of racial discrimination highlights the importance of understanding the impact of accumulated discriminatory experiences. One of the most reliable findings in research on attitudes toward police is that citizen distrust is more widespread among African-Americans than whites. Residents of disadvantaged communities have a considerable risk of experiencing direct and indirect contact with police

While a number of activists may argue that racial profiling should be banned, specialists suggest that, when used in its proper context, it is an indispensable tool in the hands of trained professionals, and that it indeed serves a specific purpose in aiding law enforcement agencies against all forms of crime.

For example, in a predominately White neighborhood, only 24 percent of the population in Park Slope was Latino and Black, yet they accounted for 79 percent of the stops. This demonstrates that these cops are racially profiling this group for reasons unknown. Another example is when Sergeant Rossano Gerald, an African American, and his son Gregory, also an African American, were headed to a family reunion in Oklahoma. The moment they crossed over into the state, they were almost immediately stopped by a highway patrol officer for driving too close to the cars in front of them. Soon after being released, another highway patrol officer pulled him over for changing lanes without signaling. The cop asked to search his car, but he refused. Gerald told the cop to call his commanding officer, but they refused his request. They then placed him and his son in a squad car. They then had dogs search his car, but when he observed the dogs, they never gave a signal that there were narcotics, but the officers claimed that they did. They proceeded with the search and took apart his car and still found nothing. At the end, they left their car and their belongings in a mess. (Harris, 1-3) Because of these actions, there is this mistrust that was formed between the police and the community. People today, do not worry about whether or not they are going to be mugged on the street, but if

This is an annotated bibliography researching the reasons for, effects of, and solutions to racial profiling by law enforcement in the United States. I am researching racial profiling and is it justified in law enforcement.