Criminal Justice
Racial Profiling
CORE MESSAGE: Racial profiling violates human rights, as well as our American values of fairness and justice. It’s a flawed policing strategy that hurts communities, and most importantly, threatens our values.
- Lead with values: Equal justice, fair treatment, freedom from discrimination, public safety and accountability.
- Define the term and explain that racial profiling is based on stereotypes and not evidence. Explain why racial profiling is not an effective police tool, and counter those who believe racial profiling may be acceptable if it somehow keeps communi- ties safe.
- Explain why profiling harms us all, it threatens our national values of fairness and equal justice, and harms Americans who are wrongly detained, arrested, or injured by law enforcement.
- Move beyond denouncing racial profiling alone and also highlight positive solutions and alternatives that ensure equal justice and protect public safety.
- Offer multiple real-life examples. The idea of racial profiling is theoretical for some audiences. It’s important to provide multiple examples that include “unexpected” people of color—e.g., business people, faith leaders, honor students—who’ve been wrongly stopped.
Racial Profiling
- Value
- To work for all of us, our justice system depends on equal treatment and investigations based on evidence, not stereotypes or bias.
- Problem
- But, too often, police departments use racial profiling, which is singling people out because of their race or accent, instead of based on evidence of wrongdoing. That’s against our national values, endangers our young people, and reduces public safety.
- Solution
- Law enforcement officers need clear rules and proper training to avoid racial profiling and focus on evidence and public safety.
- Action
- Pick up the phone and tell your members of Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act, and to support proper training and rules for police departments.