Racial Profiling: A Survey of African American Police Officers

• Author: David E. Barlow,Melissa Hickman Barlow
• Published date: 01 September 2002
• Date: 01 September 2002
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/109861102129198183
• Subject Matter: Articles

POLICEQUARTERLY(Vol.5,No.3,September 2002)Barlow,Barlow/RACIALPROFILING: A SURVEY

RACIAL PROFILING:ASURVEY

OF AFRICAN AMERICAN

POLICE OFFICERS

DAVIDE. BARLOW

MELISSA HICKMAN BARLOW

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

This article is an effort to providedata on racial profiling that are not as eas-

ily dismissed as anecdotal accounts of individual motorists. The authors con-

ducted a survey of African American police officers in the MilwaukeePolice

Department in Wisconsin regarding their personal experiences of having

been racially profiled,defining racial profiling as any situation in which race

is used by a police officer or agency to determine the potential criminality of

an individual. This study was not an investigation of the Milwaukee Police

Department or of racial profiling within the department but rather of the

extent to which Black police officers perceive they have been subjected to

racial profilingby any police officer or agency.Police officers understand the

intricacies, strategies, and techniques of law enforcement. Therefore, the

observations of Black police officers on the reasonableness of situations in

which they have been stopped by police have exceptional validity.

After being arrested for a crime he witnessed someone else commit, a young

Black law student at Harvard University wrote a “Bill of Rights for Black

Men” (Bain, 2000). On 60 Minutes, the young man described his experience

of “Walking While Black” and why he believes that the U.S. Bill of Rights

This article was presented at the American Society of Criminology Meeting in San Francisco in Novem-

ber 2000. Funding for this project was providedby the School of Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin–

Milwaukee and approved by the university’sInstitutional Review Board for the Protection of Human

Subjects. The authors wish to thank the executive director of the MilwaukeeFire and Police Commis-

sion, Joseph J. Czarnezki, for providing us with the names and work addresses necessary to complete

this project. A very special thank you goes to the African American Milwaukeepolice officers who took

the time to complete the survey.

POLICE QUARTERLY Vol.5 No. 3, September 2002 334–358

© 2002 Sage Publications

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does not apply to young Black men in America, whom he claims are regu-

larly subjected to a police practice that has become known as racial profil-

ing. Bryonn Bain is not alone in believing that Black men are often stopped,

questioned, and even arrested by police because of their race. A poll con-

ducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion indicated that 60% of

Americans aged 18 and older believe that the practice of racial profiling is

widespread. The percentage of Whites who reported believing that racial

profiling is common was 56%, whereas 76% of African Americans said

they believed it to be a common practice of police (Kurlander, 2000). Even

President George W. Bush, in his first message to Congress, indicated that

he had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to develop recommendations

to end racial profiling.

What is racial profiling? Definitions vary, and it is important to know

what definition is being used to know what to make of such high-profile

statements regarding the practice. Indeed, the strongest denouncements of

racial profiling have often come from those who define the practice so nar-

rowly (i.e., race as the only reason for stopping, questioning, or arresting

someone) that we can imagine only the most extreme bigots engaging in it.

Using such a definition, racial profiling is easy to both denounce and deny.

The real question is how public officials and politicians respond to racial

profiling as described by the many individuals who, like Bryonn Bain,

believe that their rights havebeen violated—that their race has been used by

police to deny them the protection against unreasonable search and seizure

promised by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In fact, many government officials dismiss the testimony of Black and

Brown Americans who claim that race has been used by police to determine

their potential criminality.The personal experiences of people of color who

have been victims of racial profiling are often rejected as being anecdotal,

uninformed, or overly sensitive. Even leaders in law enforcement who are

seriously committed to putting an end to racial profiling lack confidence in

the ability of the general public to identify it. For example, the President of

the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Chief Ron Neubauer, has

stated that any officer who uses racial profiling should be removed from

police work. “The IACP recommends zero tolerance...theofficers who

still commit racial profiling need to be weeded out of the force” (as quoted

in Strandberg, 1999, p. 65). However, Neubauer and other police executives

attempting to address the problem of racial profiling suggest that many inci-

dents are simply problems of perception because the public does not under-

stand the intricacies, strategies, and techniques of law enforcement.

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