Policing Minority Populations 87racial bias plays a role in police decisions to arrest (Schifferle, 1997). Other re-
searchers indicate police may be more suspicious of African Americans because
they commit more crime. As a result, police stop African Americans more of-
ten, allowing police to uncover criminal activity (Wilbanks, as cited in Schifterle,
1997).
Although it is difficult to determine the actual cause of high arrest rates for
minorities, research supports the notion that high arrest rates for African Americans
in particular are at least partially due to racial bias of police officers. Although racial
bias is apparent, it is difficult to determine if police bias toward minorities is due
to institutionalized racism within the police organization or if police target racial
minorities because minorities commit more crime. Nevertheless, action should be
taken to ensure police are not discriminating against minorities.
Forensic Psychology and Policy Implications
Researchers and legal scholars have made suggestions that could prevent discrimina-
tory traffic stops. Hecker (1997) suggests civilian review boards insist police agencies
that have been accused of discriminatory law enforcement on several occasions re-
port statistics on every police stop made. The act of recording the data alone may
reduce police discrimination. Civilian review boards should question whether drug
profiles are suggestive enough of criminal activity to warrant their use.
Another tactic which has already been used to prevent racism in the police force
is to hire more minorities. In the 1980s the Detroit police force shed its reputation
as being racist by hiring a police force that was 50% African American (Jackson,
1989). However, with the decreasing popularity of affirmative action, it is likely
that a police organization's hiring of all minority and no Caucasian officers would
meet with some opposition from the Caucasian communities.
Legal scholars have proposed other methods to limit police discretion. Although
many scholars recognize that police discretion is necessary, some argue that discre-
tion needs to be limited. Some scholars recommend judicially mandated internal
police rulemaking to govern selective enforcement (Hecker, 1997). Other research
suggests that departments develop guidelines for controlling police discretion. Al-
though these guidelines would ideally help reduce the problem, it is questionable
that they would be effective in reality, namely because racism is so ingrained in
many police organizations.
Governmental policies need to be enacted that specifically constrain police dis-
cretion. In addition, police organizations accused of selective law enforcement
should be required to report statistics on every individual stopped. Until policies
are enacted to limit the amount of discretion police are given and to monitor the
amount of race-based traffic stops, minorities will be unable to view police as their
protectors.