NCJ Number
169609
Date Published
1998
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy discusses issues related to the police use of race as a risk factor for criminality and argues that such practices are unwise and counterproductive even if they are legal.
Abstract
The United States Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and some local police use race as a factor in deciding whether to stop an individual. Courts have upheld this contact, as exemplified by court support of the police stop of airline passenger Arthur Weaver as a suspected drug courier. However, the concept of good faith reasonableness of a police action is not a wise policy, although it is legal. Police should consider race as a central risk factor only in emergencies that involve an extraordinary need, such as the apprehension of a person suspected of bringing a bomb into a building. Otherwise, using race as a risk factor undermines community confidence in the police. It burdens the innocent persons who are vulnerable to frequent police stops. Enhancing police effectiveness will require better police-community relations, which can occur only if minorities are confident that the police deal with them in the same way that they deal with white people. The courts should prohibit nonemergency use of race, but police should avoid it as a counterproductive approach even if courts allow it. The lecture was part of a series sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and included an introduction by NIJ Director Jeremy Travis and questions from the audience of public officials, researchers, and others regarding police use of age, the attitudes of minority police, and other issues