I. Describe racial profiling and racially biased policing.
Racial profiling by Schmallenger’s definition is “any police interaction that relies on the race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or religion, rather than the behavior of an individual or on information that leads police to a particular individual who has been identified as being engaged in criminal activity” (Schamalleger, 2016, p.196). The original intention behind racial profiling was to help fight drug trafficking, but has since become a less than accepted practice in policing. It has been eliminated in many federal law enforcement agencies except in the case of terrorism. Racial profiling has been very much in the eye of the public and media in recent history as so many cases of lethal force have involved police interactions with African Americans. But it occurs as well on a smaller scale in situations such as individuals are being pulled over simply because they are African American and driving a fancy car and many other more common place police interactions. Racially biased policing is when race is the primary factor for investigating an individual, with no facts or information to back up this investigation. In a PERF report …show more content…
Explain why these phenomena have become significant issue in policing.
Racial profiling and racially biased policing have become very significant in today’s society because our country is so diverse and multicultural. On top of this the media and society as a whole has brought vast attention to any police interactions that are perceived to be based on racial bias, which in turns cause greater turmoil and conflict for police when faced with situations that involve cultural differences.
III. What steps have been taken to eliminate racial bias among