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Describe Racial Profiling

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Roman Mendez CRJ 1113-001 @01505193 I. Describe racial profiling and racially biased policing Racial profiling is a prominent problem in America in general. No individual goes unjudged in todays society. The US department of Justice claims "Issues surrounding race in America, and, specifically, racial profiling have been highly visible and volatile." (Bias-Based Policing, n.d) Racial profiling is defined as "Creating a profile about the kinds of people who commit certain types of crimes" by the National Institute of Justice. Meaning that judgment is passed on the character of a person based on their "profile" or appearances. (Racial Profiling, 2015). The looks of a person and mostly the color of their skin has an effect on the …show more content…

The US Department of Justice has stated that one way of lessening this tension is implementing a system of community policing where police are more involved with the community and work together to lessen the crime and fear of it in a community. (Community Policing Defined, 2008) A goal set fourth by the Community Orientated Policing Services is "Developing effective systems and tools to prevent and respond to bias-based policing can help law enforcement maintain that mutual trust and respect." (Bias-Based Policing, n.d) The trust in officers and the respect of good behavior is needed in this method. The country needs to be able to trust it officers and make them care about the community they are policing. Through caring about the community and being more involved in it officers are able to hold themselves more accountable to their actions. Regardless of the race or ethnicity of the people they are policing. Another way officers may be held accountable to their actions is the implementation of body cameras. The city of Rialto California has undergone this change requiring the entire police force to wear these body cameras. Christopher Mimis writing for the Wall Street Journal stated that "use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%." (Mimis, 2014) This data alone shows the effectiveness of these body cameras. If more police forces could implement these body cameras to hold police accountable officers would second guess taking actions against minority groups more aggressively as they are being

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