Racial profiling in law enforcement - is that a term to be defined or is it, more accurately, an accusation?  When people refer to racial profiling in law enforcement they are referring to an alleged practice by law enforcement officials that involves targeting people for investigation because of their race or ethnicity.  Does such a travesty ever occur?  Undoubtedly.  There are and will always be injustices committed upon this earth.  The question becomes, then, whether or not racial profiling in law enforcement is the rule or the exception.

Empirical evidence shows that the largest majority of police officer arrest records show that stop to arrest ratios are equal regardless of race.  This means that when a law enforcement official wants to search a car, he has more probable cause than just the person’s skin color for pulling that car over.  If that were not true, he would be pulling over a larger number of minorities and then having to release them because no illegal contraband was found.

With that said, however, there may be instances, especially since 9/11, where certain people of Middle Eastern descent have been the victims of racial profiling in law enforcement.  The argument then becomes whether or not racial profiling in law enforcement is legal.  The practice certainly is at least challenged by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

When writing or speaking about racial profiling in law enforcement, students should probe all sides of the argument.  Racial profiling in law enforcement should be defined, instances of its occurrence should be documented, and statistics given to prove whether or not racial profiling in law enforcement is taking place as a rule.  At that point, it would be appropriate to delve intricately into the legalities of the matter.  Reading the works of other authors that deal with race relations and the theory and practice of racial profiling will broaden the scope of analysis, as will studying essays on stereotyping, which is closely akin to profiling.