Preventing and addressing police racial profiling

Police Racial Profiling

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Police Racial Profiling
Issue Presented
What can be done to prevent and address police racial profiling?
Short Answer
Police racial profiling is a critical issue in the criminal justice system that significantly affects the justice system’s public perception. Although the problem cannot be solved overnight, adopting strategies such as and effective leadership will help to prevent and address the problem. The justice system can minimize or eradicate police racial profiling by adopting several broad strategies.
Statement of the Facts
Police racial profiling is a rampant problem that creates a negative perception of the criminal justice system. Recent videos and reports on law enforcement officers killing or beating black and brown people have fueled a national outcry over the disproportionate use of force against people of color and galvanized police reform demands. Excessive use of force and restraint against people of color is an example of police racial profiling. Police also manifest racial profiling in many ways in their interactions with people of color. Police follow and monitor them excessively. Racialized people are also more likely to be stopped at police stops. There are rising concerns about street checks because people of color are stopped and searched without sufficient reasons (Pryor, Buchanan & Goff, 2020). Police are suspicious about black or brown people driving nice vehicles or living in good neighborhoods. Racialized people experience disproportionate searches, including strip searches, and are subject to more police investigations. They also experience a high arrest rate, reprisals, and harsh police treatment. People are calling for defunding the police and dismantling it altogether, which shows how racial profiling affects the relationship between communities and the criminal justice department. Racial profiling decreases the sense of trust in the police. It creates a negative image that the criminal justice system is unfair toward some people.
Discussion
Police racial profiling is not a new phenomenon. It is ingrained in the country’s history and culture. Police racial profiling traces its roots to slavery, is entrenched by systemic discrimination and exclusion, and is fueled by bias. Slave patrols common in the antebellum South laid the foundations for modern police surveillance. The patrols allowed the whites to supervise black slaves’ movement. The legacy is seen today through constant monitoring and following people of color. The 13th amendment that ended slavery also laid the grounds for police racial profiling. The amendment ended slavery unless it was a form of ‘punishment.’ It justified new restrictions, called the ‘Black codes,’ which criminalized all black people’s freedom, mobility, and economic and political power (Harris, 2020). The policing business under the new amendment was to terrorize, police, monitor, and control black people. Significantly, the modern criminal justice system was honed, fine-tuned, and resolutely established in the Jim Crow period. The Jim Crow era was rife with racism (Balko, 2020). The criminal justice system was honed to uphold the racial order and keep African Americans in their place. This was the criminal justice system’s primary function in the early 20th century. The modern system retains part of these proclivities.
Conclusion
Police racial profiling is a deeply-rooted problem in the criminal justice system, embedded in the country’s history and culture. Preventing and solving the problem is a shared responsibility. All stakeholders, including the government, police, and other relevant stakeholders, should adopt concrete solutions to prevent, monitor, and respond to racial profiling. These concrete steps are essential in rebuilding trust between the public and the police. They also help establish a favorable public perception of the criminal justice system.
Recommendations
Some complexities in the suggested solution include change resistance and failing to perceive the problem. Some people disguise racial profiling as fighting crime. Some officers justify racial profiling methods by arguing that people of color have higher crime rates. Hence, they don’t see a problem and will not take the solution seriously because there is no problem in the first place.
Police departments should to police officers. The training helps police officers understand their implicit biases, understand racial profiling, appreciate cultural diversity, and equip them with de-escalation techniques. Pottstown Police Department has to its officers. The training was very effective because the department enjoys an impressive relationship with the Pottstown community (Brandt, 2021). In addition, the training has improved trust between the community and police. The impressive results have made Montgomery County adopt the training across all police departments.
Pottstown Police Department’s anti-bias training outcomes will prove whether the proposed solutions will be successful in the implementation. The police department has good relations and enhanced trust levels with the community. Pottstown is a very diverse community. Anti-bias training has reduced police racial profiling in the community, as evidenced by good relations and high trust levels (Brandt, 2021). Hence, the proposed solution will be successful. The social disorganization theory justifies how the solution will prevent and address racial profiling. The theory holds that environmental conditions influence criminal behavior (Bellair, 2017). People in low-income environments have higher crime rates because such environments condone criminal behavior. It emphasizes individual characteristics are not connected to criminal behavior. The theory will help police understand that individual characteristics such as skin color are not a crime indicator. This will help to prevent implicit and explicit bias against people of color and reduce police racial profiling.

References
Balko, R. (2020). There’s overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist. Here’s the proof. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/
Bellair, P. (2017). Social disorganization theory. InOxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Brandt, E. (2021). Anti-bias training helps Pottstown Police be better, says the chief. Retrieved from https://www.pottsmerc.com/2021/12/14/anti-bias-training-helps-pottstown-police-be-better-says-chief/
Brandt, E. (2021). How the PA State Police Heritage Affairs Section Helps. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfYlzxHVAKc
Harris, D. A. (2020). Racial Profiling: Past, Present, and Future?.Criminal Justice,34, 10.
Pryor, M., Buchanan, K. S., & Goff, P. A. (2020). Risky situations: Sources of racial disparity in police behavior.Annual Review of Law and Social Science,16, 343-360.