Is Racial Profiling Real?

Racial profiling, as it is referred to in association with law enforcement, is less reality than it is propaganda and an inappropriate label for bigotry. As with many topics receiving media attention, there is less fact than fiction found in the headline making claims of racial profiling. People are quick to invoke the race card, when it serves a purpose—be that purpose an attempt to avoid scrutiny or an attempt to sell newspapers. It is easy to raise eyebrows, tempers and debate when race is made the focus of any situation.

Society has tasked law enforcement with keeping it safe, deterring and preventing crime and punishing those who commit crimes. Society has placed ever-increasing pressure and demand on members of law enforcement to produce results associated with these tasks. In an effort by law enforcement to respond to and manage these pressures and demands exerted by society, profiling has become a means by which they may attempt to fulfill their charge using it to predict criminal activity or identify potential or existing criminals.

Before a discussion of racial profiling can take place one must first understand the definition of profiling. Profiling, as it is used by law enforcement, is the act of taking information associated with past crimes and the criminals who committed them, compiling, analyzing and distilling that information and then using it to predict who will commit future crimes of a similar nature or identify the perpetrators of current crime. The media has both extolled the virtues of and more rarely attacked the shortcomings of profiling, all the while capitalizing on it.