Racial Profiling And The Second Amendment

The Community Policing era has been one of the contemporary police activities in the last 30 years. It is more of a decentralized approach to reducing crime by involving the same officer in the same community on a long term basis, so residents will develop trust and then provide information and assistance to the officer. Community Policing does not replace motorized patrol or other police tactics but instead compliments them with community partnership and problem solving (Bailey, 2011).

Community policing is explained as a collaboration of community and the police working together to help identify and solve criminal activities. Additionally, the whole concept behind it is to promote public safety and to enhance the quality of life within the neighborhoods in which we reside in. Community policing is composed of two major components which are community partnership and problem solving. Community policing is a program that was initially started in the 1940’s. All of the support that was released for this program was materialized actually in the 1980’s. One of the main goals if not the most important goal was to bring in the law enforcement closer to their local public to help

Community policing has evolved to be the most used strategy for policing. “It is an approach to crime detection and prevention that provides police officers and supervisors with new tools for addressing recurrent problems that plague communities and consume a majority of police agency time and resources” (Peak, 2012, 65). It has been defined by various people differently. But all the definitions have similar principles (Chappell, 2009). They focus on proactive problem solving and create relationships with the community to address any issue that may arise. Community policing is a combination of client-oriented and problem-oriented policing.

I have been a police officer for nearly 10 years, and I have seen how the citizens we serve and the various media sources that surround us constantly scrutinize our actions. Simply because the actions of other officers may not be ethical, professional, or correct in the eyes of society, that should not determine the hatred towards all of the officers. Often people believe that police officers constantly and consciously commit racial profiling, but that is not the case. Chapter Four: Racial Profiling and the Law will be utilized to demonstrate the legal issues surrounding racial profiling that have led to changes in law enforcement.

Many black communities throughout the U.S. have a complete lack of trust in law enforcement due to the dangers of being profiled, and this lack of trust is mainly active in the poor black communities. Many of the individuals of black communities feel this type of distrust because when police are present in these communities, they are viewed as an “occupying force coming in from the outside to rule and control the community” (Washington). More times than not racial profiling has often led to police brutality, all the more reason why there is no trust between those that reside in black communities, and police officers.

Recently, there has been much in the media about clashes between African Americans and the police. Two such cases, being the shootings of Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald - both incidents resulting in public outrage. These cases result in questions about racial profiling by police. Through research, it is clear that African Americans are the target of racial bias by many police departments in the United States; in order to remedy this situation, law enforcement agencies need to (and are beginning to) undergo scrutiny on their interactions with the public and, additionally must receive training on diversity.

Racial profiling still exists in America. "Racial profiling" refers to law enforcement strategies and practices that single out individuals as objects of suspicion solely on the basis of mainly their race. Prejudice and racial profiling of law enforcement is responsible for many false arrests, convictions, and countless deaths of blacks in the United States. This is one of the main difficulties of life and obstacles minorities have to face in their life because for one they are a minority and two because of their skin color. Police racial profiling is an ongoing problem that blacks in America have been facing with for over thousands of years dating back to before Blacks got their freedom. With the recent acts that are happenings in Ferguson and Eric Garner, to what happened to Rodney King, I believe it is only right to discuss the history of prejudice and racial profiling and how it relates to the discriminatory acts of police and judicial system towards blacks in the United States. Most importantly, I will discuss how America can help make a change of action to put an end to the Police racial profiling and brutality that still exists in this nation.

In today’s world we deal with multiple cases of racial profiling seemingly on a daily basis. Turn on the television, check the internet, or simply have a discussion with someone and you’ll hear about it. "Racial Profiling" describes discriminatory practices by law enforcement officials who target people for suspicion of crime based on their ethnicity, race, origin, or religion. The term first came about during the War on Drugs in the 1970’s and 1980’s when law enforcement were accused of pulling over motorists simply because of their race, then unlawfully searching their vehicles for illegal substances. There are varying opinions about this topic and as the year’s progress, it seems acts of racism, labeling, and profiling increase. Many of the instances of racial profiling that occur today involve criminal justice.

Racial profiling remains a dormant issue in the United States. It is the act of the authority, mostly, police officers linking minority status to criminal behaviour (Glover, 2007). Several police officers in the United States target specific groups because they don’t display characteristics of typical Caucasian individuals (Glover, 2007). To put history into context, before 9/11, not many police officers profiled individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds but after the attack, there was an increase in racial profiling (Harris, 2006). A racial profiling method that became prevalent in the 1980s in the United States was administered by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. Operation Pipeline was a program that they launched to help police officers catch drug traffickers (Harris, 2006). In a video, they taught police officers to look for clues that would help them recognize criminals. It was noticed that police officers made a majority of stops to people with Hispanic last names (Harris, 2006). Marshall Frank, a former police officer was asked what police officers should do if they saw an African man driving around a white community. Frank responded by stating that the police officers should stop the vehicle and investigate the reason to why he was there even if there was no occurrence of a crime (Harris, 2006).

Community Policing is a value system which infuses a police department, in which the main organizational goal is working helpfully with individual citizens, groups of citizens, and both public and private organizations to identify and resolve issues which possibly effect the livability of specific neighborhoods, areas, or the city as a whole. Community policing can be beneficial to communities. Community policing can help prevent crimes from occurring. As officers get to know a community, they also get to know what is right and wrong with it. Typically, officers remain entitled to an area where crime happens often and as such they are left with fighting it as it is going or after it happened. In community policing neighborhoods, the officers are able to tell what might happen and as

A survey reviewed a percent of people that trust law officials. The result verifies that the majority of whites trust the police than blacks and hispanics do. Another survey analyzed half of Los Angeles residents agreed that force used by police were necessary but, less than a third of African Americans doubt this. A report of a 19 year old college student proclaims that he is repeatedly asked about his whereabouts and daily activities from the same officer. “Where are you going? Do you have anything you shouldn’t have?” (LAPD Officer). Suspicion arises between the colleague and officer meanwhile, several reports claim that a high percent of ethnic people were being pulled over.

Community policing encompasses two-way communication between the local population and the police. Main concerns are defined by the community, and the community plays a crucial part in the modeling and executing locally appropriate and acceptable solutions to its problems within the community. Community policing is basically non police officers or civilians that monitor and voice concerns about neighborhood crime. They talk about public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. Joint partnerships between the police and the community they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police. Community policing, knowing that police rarely can solve public safety problems alone, boosts interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders. The range of prospective partners is great and these partnerships can be used to reach the two combined goals of developing answers to problems through joint problem solving and improving public trust. The public should play a vital role in arranging public safety problems.

Community policing is one of the newer looks on law enforcement. Many people do not know exactly community policing is or how it works. It is used in many places around the world and has many elements needed to be successful. It varies from traditional policing with how they want to solve the problems in the community.

Community policing can increase the presence of police officers in an assigned community which can deter criminals from committing crimes. Subsequently, police officers will then become more familiar with citizens, inconsistencies and unusual activities. Community policing can allow citizens to feel safer while seeing the presence of familiar uniformed officers in their community. In addition, officers who are assigned to a specific patrol beat can increase response times to calls.

Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.