Racial Profiling Definition

The purpose of the “Black or Blue: Racial Profiling and Representative Bureaucracy” article was to examine the relationship between the passive and active representation of the race in the police department, particularly in the policy area of racial profiling. The authors, Wilkins and Williams, analyzed 168,901 data collected from the vehicle stops recorded by the San Diego Police Department in the months of 2000 to measure the racial disparity among officer’s divisions. There were eight divisions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, Central, West, South, and Mid-City. The question lies, does organizational socialization strip the racial identity of police officers, changing them from “black and blue” to simply “blue” and limiting their provision

“Racial profiling is a highly salient issue in black communities” (Wilkins and Williams, 2008, pg. 654). Consequently, police officers racial profiling has diminished the relationship with minorities and “communities in the coproduction of public safety and order” (Wilkins and Williams, 2008, pg. 655). In their study, Wilkins and Williams (2008) found that for each month in 2000, the data yield a sample size of 96 in the difference between the percentage of stops in the division consisting a black driver and the percentage of the black driving-age population (pg. 658). For example, in May 2000, the data yield 7% of the vehicle stops in the Northern division involved black drivers, while only 1% of the driving-eligible population in that division was black, in which producing a racial disparity measure of 6% for that month (pg. 658). Based on the finding, Wilkins and Williams determined that the structure and processes of an organization can affect the representation provided by the bureaucrats working there. In addition, the statements collected from the individual interview discussions with African American police executives and officers suggest that the pressure to conform to the organization or to achieve the goals of the organization weighs heavily on black officers and affects their attitudes and ultimately their behavior.

Harris article “The stories, the statistics, and the law: Why "driving while black" matters” correlates with Wilkins and Williams article in the essence that it’s addressing the reason police departments need to understand the underlying issues that stand in the way of learning and changing. In this study, Harris (2009) found that “racially biased pretextual traffic stops have a strong and immediate impact on the individual African-American drivers involved” (pg. 288). The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires specifies guidelines to be met to procure a warrant for a search (Harris, 2009). The amendment does not suggest whose rights would be vindicated by addressing these police practices. The great majority of black people experiencing this type of abuse and humiliation, only crime they committed was being black. A person’s race or ethnicity should not be a probable cause during a traffic stop. Not to mentioned, the “Supreme Court has turned a blind eye to the use of pretextual stops on a racial basis” (2009, pg. 291). In other words, officers are free to act on the assumption that being black increases the probability that an individual is a criminal. No wonder blacks view the criminal justice system as being biased against