Page "Racial profiling" Paragraph 21

* In the case of racial profiling drivers, the police officers ’ judgments suggest biased policing against colored drivers.

Black drivers felt that they were being pulled over by law enforcement officers simply because of their skin color.

However, some argue in favor of the “ veil of darkness ” hypothesis, which states that police are less likely to know the race of a driver before they make a stop at nighttime as opposed to in the daytime.

Referring to the veil of darkness hypothesis, it is suggested that if the race distribution of drivers stopped during the day differs from that of drivers stopped at night, officers are engaging in racial profiling.

For example, in one study done by Jeffrey Grogger and Greg Ridgeway, the veil of darkness hypothesis was used to determine whether or not racial profiling in traffic stops occurs in Oakland, California.

The conductors found that there was little evidence of racial profiling in traffic stops made in Oakland.

Legislation has been proposed with the intent of ending racial profiling in traffic stops.

There have been many states that have begun collecting data on the details of the traffic stops in order to monitor racial profiling.

Profiling is on an individual basis and it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of arrests or stops since the studies allow officers to change their behavior accordingly.

For example, in the court case of City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, Adolf Lyons was stopped by police officers because of a faulty taillight ; police officers choked him until he was unconscious.

Plaintiffs in the case promoted equality yet it was ultimately dependent on appearance and race.

In a recent journal comparing the 1990s to the present, studies have established that when the community criticized police for targeting the black community during traffic stops it received more media coverage and toned down racial profiling.

However, whenever there was a significant lack of media coverage or concern with racial profiling, the amount of arrests and traffic stops for the African-American community would significantly rise again.