Bias Based policing

Bias based policing is the act of intentionally prejudicial judgements by a law enforcement officer on the basis race, age, religious beliefs, economic status, sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity. The most common form of bias based policing is the policing that is based on race. There have been various studies that have surrounded police stops on minorities as prospective suspects on the basis of their races.

According to Close and Mason (15), police officers conduct preferential treatment on white drivers. By so doing, there is a higher likelihood for Latino and black American drivers to get stopped and searched by police. Furthermore, Close and Mason note that the tendency to conduct searches on minorities is intended to increase the hit rate among police officers. They also note that communities with larger proportions of minorities have higher rates of searches and that the intensity of the search is usually higher than in other areas. Poverty contributes to the probability of being searched. However, the effect of poverty on the chances of being searched are minimal (56). There is evidence that the white population pushes the local governments to spend more of their budgets on offering security as the population of minorities increases.

Williams and Stahl (234) argue that profiling on the basis of race is a common problem in the US. It has especially attracted a lot of debate. Even then, their research shows that racial profiling has not been an effective tool in combatting crime and drug trafficking at both the state and national level. They cite a research by Durose et al which revealed that more blacks and Hispanics were searched at 10.2 % and 11.4 percent compared to whites among whom only 3.5 % were  searched. Among male drivers aged 25 years and above, black and Hispanic drivers comprised 5.3 % and 3.7 %. However, they comprise 12.5 % and 6.1 % of all searches. These figures show that minorities stand a higher chance of being stopped on road searches. There is however no relationship between hit rates and race and that there were no significantly better results with searches being concentrated on minorities.

Racial profiling has other setbacks, other than being unproductive. According to Dempsey And Forst (240), communities that experience this kind of profiling are more likely to display animosity towards the police. Minorities have a lower regard for the police than the other groups. More people among Hispanics and African Americans feel that the police are unfair towards them and therefore react negatively towards them.

The larger population believes that the police are biased in their practice. On the other hand, their leaders do not think that they are engaging in this behavior. Regardless of the truth, the perception alone raises issues in the communities. The law has come to the aid of such groups upon this realization (Dempsey and Forst 240). Various states have generated policies aimed at reducing the prevalence of bias based policing. This is intended to lower the impact of the bias on the perception of the police force.

In conclusion, the police force in various parts of the United States has been found to get involved in bias based policing. This has happened, especially by conducting police searches with more focus on minority groups. This practice is unproductive and does not increase the performance of the police force in nabbing criminals. In return, minority groups have depicted a negative attitude towards the police force.

Works Cited

Close, Billy R., and Patrick L. Mason. “Searching For Efficient Enforcement: Officer Characteristics And Racially Biased Policing.” Review Of Law & Economics 3.2 (2007): 1-59. Business Source Complete. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Dempsey, John, and Linda Forst. An Introduction to Policing. N.p.: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

Williams, Brian, and Michael Stahl. “An Analysis Of Police Traffic Stops And Searches In Kentucky: A Mixed Methods Approach Offering Heuristic And Practical Implications.” Policy Sciences 41.3 (2008): 221-243. Business Source Complete. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.