In 2012 , Trayvon Martin , a seventeen-year-old teenager was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford , Florida . Zimmerman , a neighborhood-watch volunteer , claimed that Martin was being suspicious and called the Sanford police to report . Between ending his call with police and their arrival , Zimmerman fatally shot Martin outside of the townhouse he was staying at . National outrage occurred when Zimmerman was not charged in the shooting . The national coverage of the incident forced Sandford leaders to arrest Zimmerman . He was charged with second-degree murder , but was found not guilty . Public outcry occurred following his release and created an abundance of mistrust between minorities and the Sanford police . In 2014 , following the Shooting of Michael Brown , the Ferguson unrest took place . In the years following , mass media has followed shootings against other innocent black men and women , often with video evidence from body-worn cameras which places officers in real time . The U.S. Justice department launched the National Center for Building Community Trust and Justice in 2014 . This program is center on collected data concerning racial profiling to create a change in the criminal justice program concerning implicit and explicit racial bias towards African-Americans as well as other minorities
Sanford police
Shooting of Trayvon Martin
Racism in the United States