How is profiling used in policing

As part of building good relationships with the public, officers routinely engage in conversations with residents. In these kinds of situations, you are always free to decline or end any conversation with an officer and walk away. If you think your encounter with police was bias based, remain calm and ask the officer the reason for the encounter. Please feel free to make a complaint if you feel you are a victim of bias based profiling with our command staff via email or call us at Skip to Main Content.

Loading Close. Do Not Show Again Close. Memos by high-ranking FBI and Department of Energy officials acknowledged that Lee was singled out because he was Chinese, and eight similarly situated non-Chinese were not prosecuted. In Seattle, Washington in July a group of 14 Asian American youth were stopped by police for jaywalking, claiming that they were kept against the wall for about an hour. The Seattle Times reported that one officer told them he had visited their country while in the army, and asked them repeatedly whether they spoke English.

The paper also reported that U. In , the Asian Freedom Project of Wisconsin issued a report that found the racial profiling of Hmong communities there, and included the testimony of adults, as well as boys and girls.

Indians complain about stops and searches by local police and sheriffs on roads leading to and from reservations. In South Dakota , widespread reports of racial profiling led to hearings before the state legislature, where Indians testified about their being stopped and searched not only based on race but also on religious articles hanging from rearview mirrors, and regional license plates that identified them as living on reservations.

In June scores of Indians in the state's Bennett County complained to Department of Justice attorneys, alleging racial profiling at the hands of sheriffs there, including vehicular stops in the absence of reasonable suspicion, the administration of breathalyzer tests without reasonable suspicion, warrantless searches of homes and vehicles, and demanding to see drivers licenses and vehicle registrations while inside bars.

Black and Latino pedestrians are regularly stopped and frisked without reasonable cause. In New York City , the December report of the New York City Police Departments pedestrian "stop and frisk" practices by the state attorney general provided glaring evidence of racial profiling in the nation's largest city.

Blacks comprise Hispanics comprise By contrast, whites are In precincts in which blacks and Hispanics each represented less than 10 percent of the total population, individuals identified as belonging to these racial groups nevertheless accounted for more than half of the total "stops" during the covered period.

Blacks accounted for 30 percent of all persons "stopped" in these precincts; Hispanics accounted for In seven other precincts, blacks and Hispanics constituted the majority of the population. The remaining two precincts were business districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn in which the daytime racial breakdown of persons within the precinct is unknown.

In roughly half of the police precincts in New York City, the majority of the population living in the precinct is white. However, of these 36 majority-white precincts, only 13 were in the top half of precincts showing most "stops" during the period. In Orange County California , a database containing the names and photographs of reputed gang members appeared to racially profile.

The disparity attracted the notice of the California Advisory Committee of the U. We asked the county district attorney's office to establish a civilian oversight board to monitor what we saw as problems with the list.

Youth of color have been victims of racially-motivated bicycling stops, " In April, , the ACLU joined a suit against Eastpointe, Michigan , representing 21 young African-American men who were stopped by the police while riding their bikes there. The ACLU argued that the bicyclists were stopped in this predominantly white suburb of Detroit because of their race and not because they were doing anything wrong. In a memorandum to the Eastpointe City Manager, the former police chief stated that he instructed his officers to investigate any black youths riding through Eastpointe subdivisions.

Police searched many of young men and, in some cases, seized and later sold their bicycles. Police logs and reports in Eastpointe have identified over incidents between and in which African-American youth were detained. These dogs, lethal weapons capable of biting at pounds pressure per square inch, and their handlers have been implicated in a vicious form of racial profiling that has led to legal action:.

California Los Angeles - The ACLU of Southern California compiled reports on the hundreds of mostly blacks and Latinos who were bitten by Los Angeles Police Department dogs from , charging that the dogs trained to "attack and maul," were routinely sent out in non-violent situations. In , California state highway patrol canine units stopped almost 34, vehicles. Only 2 percent were carrying drugs.

Maryland Prince Georges County - The Washington Post reported that in May federal prosecutors charged a county police officer with releasing her police dog on an unarmed Mexican immigrant as part of a pattern of using and threatening the use of the dog on people of color.

Despite being the subject of four lawsuits, twice being guilty of making false statements to a supervisor, and five prior instances of releasing the dog on suspects who weren't resisting, and being flagged by a departmental "early warning" system, the officer remained undisciplined in any substantive way.

In the Post reported that thirteen police dog excessive force suits had been filed in Prince Georges circuit and federal courts, in addition to five others that ended in judgement for plaintiffs or settlement. Of the total, ten alleged repeated bites of suspects once under police control, or while cuffed or on the ground. South Dakota Wagner - While not involving the use of physical canine force, the issue reached a new low when school officials and police led a large German shepherd drug dog through classrooms in suspicionless drug searches of Yankton Sioux K students, some as young as six years old.

Dogs were trained to attack and bite suspects regardless of their actions, even against alleged shoplifters, gasoline siphoners and jaywalkers. After assessing over 13 million traffic stops for over a decade, a political science professor by the name of Frank Baumgartner found that black drivers were more likely to be stopped by law enforcement than white drivers.

The numbers, however, were worse for Hispanics. Hispanics were 96 percent more likely to be searched, while African Americans were 77 percent more likely to be searched over Caucasians. A civil statute was created in the Crime Control Act of , which specifically prohibits any law enforcement agency to engage in a pattern or practice of profiling.

If the Attorney General has reasonable suspicion that profiling occurred, a civil action may be appropriate against that agency or law enforcement officer.

Some types of misconduct include unlawful stops, coercing sexual acts, excessive force, or harassment based on discrimination. If you suspect that your arrest, regardless of the crime, was solely based on police profiling, you must speak with a criminal defense attorney.

Proving profiling claims are difficult, and it would require that you show a pattern of a particular practice. To get assistance with your police profiling case, whether related to a traffic violation or serious criminal charges , you need an attorney with experience. The Law Firm of John C.