NCJ Number
194287
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 25 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 18-20
Date Published
December 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article reviews current attitudes toward profiling.
Abstract
If a police officer decides, based on appearance alone, that an individual is a felon on parole, a felon at large, or is carrying drugs, his decision is assumed to be based wholly or mostly on the officer's experience. However, the same information could have come from a training class explaining the many traits exhibited by a cross-section of criminal types. If an officer weighs the entirety of a situation and race is one of many factors, the question arises whether the officer's actions constitute racial profiling or simply good police work. A Time/CNN poll taken after the events of September 11 disclosed that 29 percent of those interviewed thought it appropriate for law enforcement to stop people on the street for random searches. While the racial profiling debate focuses primarily on highway stops, urban area police departments suffer the same scrutiny as the State troopers. The article observes that, when society finally realizes it should be politically correct to stop crime, the wasted energy now spent by those railing against racial profiling will be better spent taking action against the people the police are already trying to stop. In conclusion, concentration on the goal at hand (catching criminals and terrorists) combined with a lowered level of sensitivity is in order.