Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is as prejudiced behavior by law enforcer’s officials by aiming individuals for crime suspicion based on their ethnicity, race, national origin, and religion. Law enforcement officials rely on individuals’ characteristics and believe they were associated with a particular crime. An example of racial profiling is when law enforcers stop drivers belonging to a specific race after they have violated minor traffic rules or when they use race or religion to determine the pedestrians’ viability to search for illegal contraband.

Racial profiling is problematic because it continues to be a profoundly longstanding issue in the United States despite the claims that the country has entered the post-colonial era. Racial profiling happens daily in cities and towns within the country, with law enforcement and private security continues to target individuals of color by holding humiliating and frightening searches, interrogations, and detentions without proper proof of criminal activity. The United States constitution rules racial profiling illegal because the constitution mandates to treat its citizens equally and free them from unreasonable seizures and searches. Racial profiling is highly ineffective and its only outcome is the alienation of communities from the safety of law enforcement, obstructs community policing efforts, and destroys the reputation of law enforcement. This makes them lose trust and credibility among the people they swear to serve. Therefore, policies to oversee this matter must be formulated because it is increasing rift among communities with many innocent lives being lost every year and millions of state property getting destroyed.