RACISM IN POLICING

Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Crime and Race statistics
    A. Comparison of the types of crimes committed and races involved
    1.) Areas with highest arrest rates of black individuals
    2.) Areas with largely white arrest rates
    B. Race within police force
    1.) Race distribution geographically
    2.) Race distribution geographically in police force
III. Police Training in Racism
    A. Racism and violence reported with arresting officers
    B. Statistics of violent arrests in relation to race
IV. Racial Profiling
    A. Positive and negative effects
    B. Effects on crime
V. Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

    Policing and racism has become a major national concern that has led civil rights leaders to call on the federal government and police agencies to take action and address the problem. Through researching various journals and periodicals, I have uncovered much information about racism as it relates to policing. The authors of these various articles give in depth reviews on studies, research, and experience with policing and racial discrimination. The descriptions of the sources are provided in the following subject orders: Prejudice and Racial Profiling, History and Police Discrimination, Racial Epithets, Campaign for Human Rights, and Strategies and Prevention.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Prejudice and Racial Profiling

    The article, “Understanding Diversity” in the Journal of California Law Enforcement was written by Sal Esposito. The article discusses discrimination in law enforcement and how it produces unequal treatment based on cultural and skin color differences. This article adequately defines prejudice, describes how it is formed, and offers advice to agencies to institute programs to help officers deal with diversity. The author describes prejudice as being “a normal human reaction”. I would like to see the author going beyond this point by declaring it unacceptable in law enforcement and offer ways to conquer it.

    The article entitled “The role of race in law enforcement: Racial profiling or legitimate use?” is located in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin and was written by Richard G. Schott. The article discusses the controversy of racial profiling and distinguishes between the uses of profiling and unlawful racial profiling. The author argues that profiles are based on officers’ training and experience and are legitimate tools in police work. The author is successful at making his points as he cites many examples. This article also gives a detailed description of laws that are in place to protect the public from racial profiling.

    The author, David Rudovsky, discusses some of the rationales for racial profiling in the article entitled, “Breaking the pattern of racial profiling”. The author looks in depth at how police defend their racially unfair practices. However, the author does an excellent job of refuting these claims by further researching actual crime patterns and the races involved. My paper will discuss additional crime cases and the statistics of races involved.

    “Driving while black: Effects of race, ethnicity, and gender on citizen self-reports of traffic stops and police actions”, is an article written by Richard Lundman and Robert Kaufman discussing a study comparing African-American to white men that report being pulled over for traffic violations. The study is based on citizen self-report data. The article discussed the validity of this data and analyzes encounters of citizens and police. The authors do an excellent job of discussing the view point of the citizens in question and the actual officers. In my paper I will further explore the issues concerning the findings of this study.

History and Police Discrimination

    The article, “Policing space, policing race: Social control imperatives and police discretionary decisions”, discusses the relationship between race, space, and policing and the history of legally sanctioned racial discrimination and residential segregation of African Americans. The author, Sandra Bass, believes that government supported racial discrimination and segregation have profoundly influenced the practice of policing in the United States. The author often involves a lot of her personal opinions and sometimes lacks factual data to back it up. My paper will attempt to not disclose any personal opinions and merely present the facts or possibilities.

Racial Epithets

    The author, Robert P. Mueck’s article, “Racial epithets by police officers”, discusses how racial slurs are not against the law but it is against departmental policy and ethics. The author argues that professional officers should eliminate racial talk from their vocabulary. The author believes that it is the duty of the officer to set the example for the common citizen and their fellow officers. The author does a good job at citing many examples of racial epithets involving officers. The article could further provide factual information in its arguments rather than building the case based on feelings and emotions of officers and citizens.

Campaign for Human Rights

    Amnesty International’s website offers many insights to the organization’s campaign for the United States of America. An article found on the site titled, “United States of America: Race, Rights and Police Brutality” discusses the focus of national attention in recent years to police brutality. The article states that this attention has developed due to high profile cases dealing with fatal acts of violence in which police officers have killed innocent people of color. The article successfully makes its case by providing detailed information about how individuals were killed unjustly by police because they were people of color. However, it would be interesting to see statistics of the numbers of these crimes and their increase or decrease throughout the past. In my paper, I would like to present some statistics about racism and policing.

Strategies and Prevention

    The article written by Richard A. Rivera, located in Law & Order, entitled “Nine Ways to Prevent Racial Profiling”, encourages police officials to focus on prevention. The article states that finding ways to prevent racial profiling should be the top priority for police executives. The author believes that these concerns would be best addressed through standardized agency training. It would be extremely beneficial to the agency and the public if members of the police agency attend racial profiling prevention training. This article offers many suggestions as to how this profile prevention training could be implemented. In my paper, I will further discuss how police agencies can apply programs to prevent racism.

    The author, Ronal Davis, in the article “National organization of black law enforcement executives: Bias-based policing”, discusses issues faced by black law enforcement officers, and matters dealing with bias-based policing. The author gives a detailed description of bias-based policing and warning signs for agencies. The article explains a wide range of strategies agencies can put into practice in order to prevent bias-based policing.

    During 1999, Carolyn Wolpert wrote an in depth analysis on the theories on race and crime in the article “Considering race and crime: Distilling non-partisan policy from opposing theories”. The article provides four recommendations for law enforcers and policy makers to improve race relations. This article is very detailed in its review of the theories and the author does an excellent job of investigating opposing opinions. My paper will also attempt to explore various theories surrounding policing and racism.

    The article, “The relationship between multicultural training for police and effective law enforcement” offers insights into how multicultural police training can reduce civil disorder and benefit the policing agency. The author, Coderoni, believes that multicultural training can improve community relations and better reflect the cultural makeup of an agency’s community. The author does and excellent job discussing the benefits as well as negative consequences of not implementing multicultural training.

    My paper will also attempt to examine the benefits and negative consequences of various actions of police training.

RESEARCH METHODS

The Following information was retrieved from abcnews.com.  The analysis was done by Dalia Sussman.

It is recorded that ¾ of black drivers believe they are more likely to be pulled over by the police for minor infractions.  Only 1/3 of whites think this is true.  However, blacks and whites report being pulled over form minor violations at essentially the same rate. 

*The following is a survey that will be submitted to approximately 15-20 Pitt County Sheriff’s Office Deputies.  The information obtained with give me input as to how policing authorities regard their diversity training and the importance of it to them.

Survey for Research in Diversity and Policing  

1.     Do you feel that you have received adequate training in how to deal with minority issues and diversity?

2.     Would you be interested in learning more about how to prevent racial profiling and interacting with the diverse public?

3.     Rank the importance of dealing with racial issues as it applies to your encounters with the public daily.  1 being of little importance and 10 being very important. 

The following data was retrieved online at the website, http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm

The graph in Figure 1.1 is based on information from the US Census Bureau.  This graph gives you a visual understanding of the division of race in the United States Population and is relevant to my research.

Figure 1.1

The graph in Figure 1.2 represents information obtained by a federal Household Survey.  The graph is a visual representation of current illicit drug users in 1998.  However it is not congruent with those actually arrested for drug violations.  According to the survey, blacks constitute 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations.  African Americans comprise 58% of those in state prisons for drug felonies and Hispanics account for 20.7%. 

Figure 1.2 

Figure 1.3 demonstrates the current levels of incarceration.  Represented is the chance of a newborn growing up to serve time in prison.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Policing and racism has become a major national concern that has led to civil rights leaders to call on the federal government to take action to address the problem of racism in policing.  There have been several incidences involving racial discrimination among police in various states in recent reports.  Racial profiling among police forces has become a major topic.  There are laws set into place to protect the publics’ civil rights but their effectiveness is controversial.

Through research and review of professional literature, it is evident that there are many factors that contribute to racism in police forces.  Police that have a strong police identity may give the officer a feeling of power and this power can sometimes be abused.  Not having an establishment of healthy relations between police and a multi-ethnic public will be harmful.  It is crucial that police receive training to prepare for work in a diverse society.  Police agencies should also focus on prevention.  Programs should be tested and implemented involve the participation of the entire department.  Multi ethnic training will further educate officers and supervisors and allow them to deal with the public fairly.

It is evident that racism and policing is relevant to present times and not a mere association to the Civil Rights movement.   My research has indicated that in the past few years there have been several high profile cases that have centered the publics’ attention on police and minorities.  In 1999, there was the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo in New York City.  He was shot to death by four white officers from an elite crime squad.  The squad had been looking for a rape suspect.  They fired 41 shots at Diallo, hitting him 19 times while he was standing in the vestibule of his apartment building (http://www.amnestyusa.org).  This case brought intense media coverage and increased the concern about police targeting black people and other minorities as potential criminals unjustly.

There is much to be discovered in the area of racism and policing.  Effective police training can always be corrected and modified to become better.  Focusing on preventive strategies should be a primary goal for agencies.  Repercussions should be strict for police officers that operate unfairly in the community.