Racial profiling stats mean NOTHING!! They are just another way for defense attorneys, the ACLU and groups like the NAACP to let criminals go free.
‘Racial profiling’ does not prove that police officers are racists. Are there racist police officers in this country, of course, but what I would like to discuss is that ‘racial profiling’ alone does not make one a racist. ‘Racial Profiling’ occurs when a law enforcement officer detains or initiates any investigative or enforcement action against a citizen based solely on the citizen’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economical status or disability. Police agencies use profiling everyday in this country effectively and it has been proven to be a valuable tool and combating crime.
To begin with one of the most important ideas in modern criminology, and one that has revolutionized police practice—the belief that a good way to prevent robberies, murders, and other serious felonies is to go after minor offenses. Thus, when William J. Bratton was chief of the Transit Police in New York City a decade ago, part of his strategy for controlling violence in the subway system was to order his officers to crack down on small infractions—fare beating, panhandling, graffiti, smoking, boisterous behavior. Within two years of the policy's adoption, the number of felonies in the subway declined by more than 30%. This action prevented violent crimes from being committed on the subways and showed that one out of every six fare evaders that were stopped by the New York City Transit Police were either carrying a weapon or were wanted for another crime on an outstanding arrest warrant. It proved that by enforcing laws, which others did not regard as worth worrying about, you could prevent other violent crimes from occurring.
Now how does this same principle apply to drug trafficking on our nations highways? People who violate minor laws are also inclined to violate major laws. Stopping motorists for traffic violations has led to the seizure of major shipments of illegal narcotics as well as the arrests of numerous persons wanted for violent crimes to include murder. The Perry Oklahoma police made a decision to conduct a traffic stop because a vehicle did not have a license plate, which subsequently led to the arrest of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.
When I worked in a largely minority neighborhood (95% Black+Haitian), which was known for high crime and drug activity, we as law enforcement would commonly profile white people who came into the area and conduct traffic stops accordingly if a infraction was observed. Subsequently officers would make observations that could possibly lead to the search of the vehicle or person. This was taught and was an excepted practice in ‘racial profiling’ training as well as human diversity training. The problems arouse when the titles were reversed. I cannot remember a single occasion when civil rights leaders, NAACP or the ACLU blasted an agency enforcing ‘Driving while White’ although it does exists.
True, most blacks and Hispanics are law-abiding. But if drug traffickers are disproportionately black or Hispanic, the police don't need to be racist to stop many minority motorists; they simply have to be efficient in targeting potential drug traffickers. It is an unfortunate fact that much higher proportions of black children than white grow up at a social disadvantage and are more tempted to break society's rules. Thus, although blacks are only 12% of the American population, in a recent year they comprised 56% of the arrests for murder, 42% of the arrests for rape, 61% of the arrests for robbery, 39% of the arrests for aggravated assault, 31% of the arrests for burglary, 33% of the arrests for larceny and 40% of the arrests for motor-vehicle theft. Also 46% of state prison inmates—i.e., those actually convicted of crimes—were black (another 17% were Hispanic). (FBI stats, not mine) Why should they not be equally over represented in drug trafficking, which is less easy to measure statistically?
The theory goes back to that of selective enforcement. Police departments are responsible for efficiently policing their area of responsibility. If, a large metropolitan police department were to break down the crimes statistics for narcotic sales within their jurisdiction and statistically were to show that narcotics sales were substantially higher in the low income, largely minority community, than in an more affluent white community, putting aside all the social economics involved, the police department would be negligent to expend their resources for narcotics enforcement in the white neighborhood opposed to the minority
neighborhood. Of course the narcotics unit would make arrests in all communities but the responsibility of the police is to place the largest resources in the areas of the largest demand. Is this considered racism on the part of the police, not in my opinion?
Anti-profilers insist, as in the case of Sen. Robert Torricelli from the state of New Jersey that there is no evidence "that certain ethnic or racial groups disproportionately commit crimes. They do not."
But of course they do. And once a traffic stop is made, any subsequent search of the vehicle is apt to be triggered by behavioral cues such as nervousness and/or conflicting stories on the part of the vehicle's occupants, cues, which may have nothing to do with race or ethnicity.
It’s an awkward fact, but a fact non-the less, albeit it’s tough to find any politicians to say it: Felons are not evenly distributed across society's demographic groups. Many individuals and groups specialize in making accusations of racism, and police become vulnerable to such accusations when they concentrate their efforts where crime is.
If these accusation begin to control policing, only public safety will suffer, especially the safety of minorities who are often forced to live in violent and drug-infested neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods, where the primary complaint against the police many times originate, state that there are not enough police in their neighborhood and that the officers there are too tentative against predators, are normally not the neighborhoods where anti-profiling crusaders live.
We are thus evolving into a system of "racial proportionality" in law enforcement. Rank and file police officers now have a strong incentive to look the other way when minorities might be involved in criminal activity.
Sorry for the long post, but I just completed a research paper on this subject and its aggravating to me and ruining police careers of good, hard working cops because of useless stats like these.
Stay safe and look out for each other!!
