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The Ethical Dilemmas Of The Stop And Frisk Policy

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Humans today have known/ had a sense of what is good or bad since childhood. These beliefs are based on ethical systems. Ethical systems are principles used to define what is right or good. Consequently, they are the source of moral beliefs which have an overall effect in ones judgments. These systems help individuals solve ethical dilemmas. This paper will discuss the ethical dilemmas of the stop and frisk policies as well as their changes. In addition, this paper will also discuss how ethical the “stop and frisk” policy is. When a police officer is conducting a stop and frisk procedure, this means that the officer is temporarily detaining another person/suspect. If the person shows signs of having suspicious behavior, the officer will then …show more content…

Consequently the rulings/contributions of the court cases have reformed the Stop and Frisk policy. In the 1968 Terry V. Ohio case, the stop and frisk practices had first come to the court systems to be evaluated. As a result, the Supreme Court ruled that a constitutional search and seizure must be based on probable cause. This is due to the fact that the fourth amendment protects an individual against unreasonable searches and seizures. This policy was further changed in the 1980’s during the United States v. Sokolow which the Supreme Court came to the decision that police have the power to detain investigate and question people suspected of being drug couriers. The DEA gave officers a drug currier profile, which gives the officers reasonable suspicion to search for people that fit the profile. Officers can use this reasonable suspicion to carry out the stop and frisk. The 1990 case Alabama v. White ruled that anonymous tips were reliable sources for automobile stops. Subsequently, this was a controversial ruling that was later changed in 2000 as a result of the ruling in the Florida v. J. l case. As a result, the courts then ruled that an anonymous tip stating that a person is carrying a gun is not sufficient enough to justify a stop and frisk. There must be more reason. (Farlex., …show more content…

Their purpose is so find and remove weapons from the streets as well as gain information to find and solve crime sprees. In addition, one of the important reasons of this practice is to send future and current criminals that at any time they could receive a stop and frisk (Bergner, D.,2014). For instance, in New York City from 1990 to 2013 there was around a seventy-five percent decrease of major felonies (Bandler, A., 2016). This was all because of ‘protective policing’ which includes stop and frisk. The City of New York has recently banned the practice of the stop and frisk, subsequently, the homicide rates have increased nearly twenty percent and gun crime has continued to increase for two consecutive years (Bandler, A.,

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Stop and frisk has been a highly conversed topic within the general public within recent years. Many people think that these are just a way to profile possible offenders and treat them as guilty before they do anything wrong. Our book describes how that is not true because a stop and frisk must meet certain requirements in order to be valid. A major case that was held in regards to stop and frisk was Terry v. Ohio and this case determined that a police officer must meet two requirements in order for the stop to be valid. The first one is that either a crime has been committed or will be committed and the suspect is possibly armed and dangerous.

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In this paper many will understand the concepts and the role of a stop and frisks. It will allow the readers to see the good and perhaps the bad of stop and frisk process. The research will also allow the readers to see how law enforcement can abuse power of authority in certain situation. Stop and frisk can be good and evil depending on the type of police officer at the time using his or her belief of the “Golden Rule” (meaning treating others with respect as everyone wants to be treated.) Stop and frisk is when police temporarily detain somebody and pat down their outer clothing when there are specific articulable facts leading a reasonable police officer to believe a person is armed and dangerous.

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