Law enforcement agencies and the creation of profiles
Law enforcement agencies seek to protect the rights of the people. Throughout its execution of duty, these agencies identified various patterns of law violations linked to certain characteristics of the perpetrators, allowing for the creation of profiles. From these, officers can infer the probability of threat and act on it before any harm befalls the innocent. Therefore, racial profiling does not intend to single out a group of people by their traits, but rather create a safety net of physical and psychological preparation to handle situations.
The negative consequences of profiling
While profiling does make law enforcement an easier task, it is unfortunate that law enforcement officers use these probabilities from common profiles as bases for accusation and mistreatment of the innocent who fit into a certain profile type. This often results in wrongful arrests of innocents, discrediting of the agency, fines in remuneration and increased negative perceptions from the public. Therefore, rather than using racial profiling as a key component of their assessments, officers should employ their assessment faculties before carrying out the legal duties.
The impact of exposure and misjudgment
Even though racial profiling is an unconstitutional practice, it is true that certain crimes and acts of human rights violations tend to manifest as the efforts of certain groups of people. Officers and agents can validate this approach since the collection and analysis of criminal data reveal particular patterns of behavior for groups and individuals. Being human, exposure to these trends reinforces certain ideas and patterns in many officers’ minds, resulting in the misjudgment of scenarios and individuals.
The challenge of equal representation and discrimination
While it is in good faith to develop equal grounds to cover everyone in a similar manner, it is more difficult to ensure equal representation of majority and minority groups. While majority rule is a solution to this problem, it takes care of the larger populous by relying on the improbability that minority groups will require special coverage for their needs unless in case-specific scenarios. This imbalance is detrimental to the population because in such cases, the majority’s needs transcend those of the minority and can lead to discrimination.
Works Cited
Ritchie, Andrea J., and Delores Jones-Brown. "Policing Race, Gender, and Sex: A Review of Law Enforcement Policies." Women " Criminal Justice 27.1 (2017): 21-50.
