a. Two African American men are driving over the speed limit on a highway where police know drugs are being transported to a part of the city with a large African American population. A police officer stops them for speeding and then conducts a complete search of their car, including their trunk, to look for drugs. They do not find any drugs.
b. After a terrorist attack, the government decides to use more telephone wiretaps to gather information in communities that have mosques.
c. A man reports overhearing two Spanish-speaking men in a coffee shop planning to rob a specific jewelry store the next day. The witness could not see the men’s faces and does not know their names. The next day the police go to the store and question two “Latino-looking” men who are sitting in a car outside.
d. A woman entering the United States holds a passport from a country with which the United States was recently at war. A customs agent detains her for questioning.
Should Anything Be Done About Racial Profiling?
A committee of state legislators is meeting to discuss solutions to the issue of racial profiling. A study by the state government shows that African American drivers are 35 percent more likely to be stopped and searched by police than are drivers of other races. A survey of people who have been pulled over in the state shows that a majority of people felt that they were stopped for legitimate reasons. However, one in three African Americans and one in four Latinos felt they had been unfairly stopped. Many complained of abusive treatment by police.
Assume that you are a state legislator on the committee trying to solve these problems. Read the following excerpts from proposals offered by committee members.
Gomez: The problem is that police are not used to dealing with people from other cultures and have stereotypes of people of other races. All police should receive training on diversity and how to be culturally sensitive.
Wu: This practice has gone on for so long because people are not aware of their rights. When people are stopped, they should immediately be told why and be given a card that lists their rights along with a business card listing the name and contact information of the officer.
Letaliano: Police officers are not being disciplined for their inappropriate behavior because the police chiefs are unaware of what is going on. We need to collect data regularly to make police officers more aware of why they are really stopping people and to keep them accountable to the public. Each time a driver is stopped, the officer should be required to fill out a form detailing the time and date, driver’s age, probable race, gender, and the reason for stopping the person.
Reynolds: The U.S. Constitution and state laws already prohibit searches not based on probable cause. The police department already has internal complaint procedures that people can follow if they feel they were stopped because of their race. This is enough to protect citizens. To do more could make the police reluctant to stop people who might be criminals.
Al-Aziz: It’s too hard for citizens to prove that they were stopped illegally. All stops by police should be videotaped so we can see how the police treat the suspect and then take disciplinary action against officers who act improperly.
Debouche: We can’t rely only on laws or the police department to solve the problem. The answer is to have a board made up of ordinary citizens that hears complaints and has the power to take disciplinary action against officers who act inappropriately.
a. Which of these proposals seems most likely to help address the issue as you see it? Give your reasons.