Law Enforcement perspective of Racial Profiling

The media plays a big role on how police officers are going to conduct their job by disclosing the criminals on the news, newspaper, radio and magazines and giving the law enforcement an outlook of what to watch out for on the streets. The law enforcement also apply their daily experience and similar patterns such as what race is most stopped, what the individual is wearing and what was their behavior that caused the police officer to stop the individual and by using this as a guidance of what to watch out for the law enforcement can determine their decision when to question an individual when patrolling. Characteristics that officers may keep in mind when patrolling can consist of subjects of a certain race such as Hispanic and African American depending on the area, tattoos on their body, oversized clothes, sagging pants, and low rider cars. An example of a group of people that share these characteristics are gang members. They are known to cause problems and violence and sometimes lead to murder. Due to color rivalry and property ownership which is what they fight for, violence that can sometimes result in death can take place. Red versus blue, thirteen versus fourteen and a common belief of, “this is my hood” is what rises the violence amongst these gangs. The law enforcement may use racial profiling to watch out for individuals who may share similar characteristics that a gang member might have to make stops or arrests. Police officers do not want to risk ignoring these characteristics because this can lead to an act of violence. If the police refuse stopping someone because they do not want to be accused of racial profiling, someone can result in getting hurt. Law enforcement prefer to be safe than sorry. When police officers stop an individual of a certain race and driving a certain type of car and finds that they broke the law and then they stop another individual of the same race and same type of car and again they broke the law they are going to follow that pattern. When they see a common pattern like this, assumptions are going to be made on individuals that fit a similar description and they are going to be stopped by the police because of the similarities. Police officers want to establish a sense of security within communities by using their experience when patrolling and following a pattern that is consistent that they seem to have frequently in regards to what “type” of person they seem to arrest more consistently.