   non-whites vehicles nearly twice as liable to be searched than white(no flaming)
  Pulled from the Boston Globe website: You can read the article at the link, but you may have to sign up to do so, otherwise, the article is as follows...Quote:June 4, 2006PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Rhode Island police search vehicles driven by minorities about twice as often as whites, although whites are more likely to carry illegal contraband such as guns or drugs, according to a recent study.Researchers from Northeastern University in Boston made the conclusion after reviewing reports from more than 288,000 traffic stops during the year ending Sept. 30, 2005. The study includes data from every Rhode Island municipal police department as well as the State Police.The research effort follows up on a study four years ago that concluded minorities were searched about 2 1/2 times more than whites. That makes the most recent findings a slight improvement, according to some police officials."I'm going to say that I think there is some progress," said Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Association of Police Chiefs. "I'm not here to say that by any stretch of the imagination that we think we're out of the woods on this."But several civil rights advocates said the study proves a pattern of racial discrimination by police officers."It's painfully simple: It's racism," said Onna Moniz-John, East Providence's affirmative action officer. "They can't get beyond the fact that all of us are not criminals."Amy Farrell, the study's principal author, said it's too early to judge whether police departments have successfully reduced racial disparities."There are some departments that have really done a lot, but still their numbers are somewhat problematic and there are other departments that haven't done diddly, and their numbers got better," she said. "That's a real mystery, and I think it will be frustrating to some chiefs."During the study period, police searched about 6.7 percent of vehicles, or about 20,000 vehicles.Warren police had the highest racial disparity, searching nonwhites about 3.4 times more often than whites, according to the study. Warren Police Chief Thomas Gordon called the results troubling.Gordon said he's trained his officers on how to avoid racial profiling and required police supervisors to approve vehicle searches.One study outlier was in Narragansett, where researchers didn't report a racial imbalance in vehicle searches. Narragansett police officers were also more likely to uncover illegal contraband when they did search cars than police officers elsewhere in the state.Narragansett Police Chief J. David Smith said his officers must write a report every time they search a car, which forces officers to articulate their rationale for a search.Now, being a minority myself, I can say that I believe there is truth to this article, and it does trouble me.  Yet, on one hand, I've found ways to circumvent this issue(the moment I got a car that was all black, I have since never been stopped, yet my driving habbits remain unchanged.  moving out of those areas of town where I was mostly stopped(predominantly white) helped as well).  I hate throwing around the race card, as that I've seen it do more harm than good, but the numbers here are sickly disproportionate.  What could cause such a mindset in a person, especially for those that are supposed to uphold the law?   
  DWB - Driving While Black.It's a pretty common problem.Not really sure how one would go about fixing it though.Back when I worked at a retail store, our security guys would always look at every black person who entered the store. Their reasoning: "I don't see a problem with racial profiling. Statistics show that the vast majority of criminals are blacks, so why not use that statistic as a law-enforcement tool?"Problem is, blacks are only "the vast majority of criminals" because of attitudes like this. Other races are ignored completely when committing crimes.*sigh*   ;  I am not 'considered' among the minority (at least in terms of skin color) but I still find this deeply troubling.   I believe everything in the article to be true...and it saddens me that WE aren't a little further along (as a society).  Unfortunately there are systems of thought and stereotypes which still haven't changed, even after being discounted as ignorant multiple times, continually for God knows how long.  Who knows where it ends.   ;  That is a problem, so please don't take what I'm about to say as defense for racial profiling; But I do wish the article would breakdown the searched vehicle owner ethnicities by officer ethnicity. It's unknown from reading that article as to if minority officers search white vehicle's more often than other alike minorities.Quote:PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Rhode Island police search vehicles driven by minorities about twice as often as whites, although whites are more likely to carry illegal contraband such as guns or drugs, according to a recent study.I'm dissapointed that the 'recent study' was not cited.   ;Quote:Original post by necreiaThat is a problem, so please don't take what I'm about to say as defense for racial profiling; But I do wish the article would breakdown the searched vehicle owner ethnicities by officer ethnicity. It's unknown from reading that article as to if minority officers search white vehicle's more often than other alike minorities.Quote:PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Rhode Island police search vehicles driven by minorities about twice as often as whites, although whites are more likely to carry illegal contraband such as guns or drugs, according to a recent study.I'm dissapointed that the 'recent study' was not cited.That's actually a pretty good point.  As far as the study, the only source point the the Providence Journal website.  Unfortunately, it doesn't point to anything specific.   ;  I'd also like to see what the probability for searching a car was based upon the reason for being stopped.This whole article is full of holes, and I suspect that the 'recent study' is as well.  I wouldn't get too worked up over it without the underlying reports and their methodologies.  People get too excited over 'recent reports' and anonymous sources which may or may not exist.   ;Quote:Original post by necreiaThat is a problem, so please don't take what I'm about to say as defense for racial profiling; But I do wish the article would breakdown the searched vehicle owner ethnicities by officer ethnicity. It's unknown from reading that article as to if minority officers search white vehicle's more often than other alike minorities.I would suspect just the opposite. That is, I would expect minority officers to be more likely to search minority vehicles per the premise that doing so demonstrates to white officers that they can be trusted. Quote:Original post by necreiaQuote:PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Rhode Island police search vehicles driven by minorities about twice as often as whites, although whites are more likely to carry illegal contraband such as guns or drugs, according to a recent study.I'm dissapointed that the 'recent study' was not cited.Reporting laziness. There was enough information in that article to plug into google to find the report right away: "Northeastern University" "Amy Farrell". It's the lead item on the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University website. ;Quote:Original post by MithrandirBack when I worked at a retail store, our security guys would always look at every black person who entered the store. Their reasoning: "I don't see a problem with racial profiling. Statistics show that the vast majority of criminals are blacks, so why not use that statistic as a law-enforcement tool?"It was the same for me when I used to work at Pacific Sunwear (yes, before Pacsun). My boss would always whisper me to "keep an eye" on the Mexicans, which made me a little uneasy. However, on two different occasions I spotted Mexican families trying to shoplift a lot of clothing. It made it a little hard to really say anything to the "told-ya-so" look of the boss. :\   ;Quote:Original post by SalsaQuote:Original post by MithrandirBack when I worked at a retail store, our security guys would always look at every black person who entered the store. Their reasoning: "I don't see a problem with racial profiling. Statistics show that the vast majority of criminals are blacks, so why not use that statistic as a law-enforcement tool?"It was the same for me when I used to work at Pacific Sunwear (yes, before Pacsun). My boss would always whisper me to "keep an eye" on the Mexicans, which made me a little uneasy. However, on two different occasions I spotted Mexican families trying to shoplift a lot of clothing. It made it a little hard to really say anything to the "told-ya-so" look of the boss. :\Yeah but the problem is that you probably noticed them because of your heightened sense of perception at their presence. If it was a white woman you probably weren't paying as much attention.In my experience, the people who steal the most often are (no joking): Old white women, and new mothers.I figure the old women steal because they grew up in the depression where that kind of behaviour was common. As for new mothers, financial stress of having a kid, plus the fact that it's incredibly easy to just stash stuff in a stroller and then yell when someone tries to take a look at what's in it.   ;  Meh, I'm just going to leave this now, it'll turn into a lot of emotion and only a little truth.   