Life of a Police Officer

HYO PICASSO

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

San Antonio Police Department The San Antonio Police Department is dedicated to

improving the quality of life by creating a safe environment.

Racially biased policing is when one believes a law enforcement officer makes a traffic stop because of the individual’s race ethnicity or national origin. It has been misunderstood with law enforcement officers just doing their job.

Law enforcement officers have been trained to scan their environment and develop a sense of what is right or wrong in the environment they work.

Law enforcement officers, with experience, develop a sense of what may seem right or out of the norm.

Racially biased policing and racial profiling have become significant issues in policing because it weakens the confidence of civilians in their law enforcement agencies and causes the public to lose trust of their law enforcement officers and decrease cooperation with the law.

The Research Question(s)

What is racial profiling and racially biased policing?

Do you believe racial profiling and racially biased policing have become a significant issue

in policing? What steps have been taken to eliminate racial bias among police?

Overview of the Research

If a law enforcement officer makes a traffic stop of a person of different race, then the traffic stop will be because of an offense committed.

Research Design: I interviewed ten (10) San Antonio Police

Officers and will be using observations, case studies and visual studies to collect data.

Research Design and Methods I interviewed ten (10) law

enforcement officers.

Control = Law Enforcement Officer

I have conducted a focus group with my participants. I have observed my participants. I have collected visuals. I have collected information of each law enforcement officer using the questionnaire attached on the right of the screen.

The Results I have interviewed ten (10) law enforcement officers. All law enforcement officers were genuine and kind. All

law enforcement officers portrayed a family background of all races.

Each and every law enforcement officer concluded their interview as they only do their jobs as they have been trained in the work force. The law enforcement officers expressed their traffic stops being made only when a criminal offense has been committed.

Marital Status of Police Officers Interviewed

Married to Same Race

Married to Other Single Divorced

• What is racial profiling and racially biased policing?

Do you believe racial profiling and racially biased policing have become a significant issue in policing? What steps have been taken to eliminate racial bias among police?

Racial profiling is when an law enforcement officer makes a traffic stop, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the behavior of the person or on information that identifies the person as being or have been engaged in criminal activity. Racially biased policing has been misunderstood with law enforcement officers just doing their job.

In order to eliminate racial bias among police officers, law enforcement agencies require supervisors to monitor activity reports for evidence on improper practices and/or patterns, and police department supervisors have been conducting random spot-checks and regular checks of in-car videotapes, radio transmissions/recordings, and in-car computer and central communication records.

Conclusion

99% of Law Enforcement Officers are not racially biased nor do they abuse racial profiling used to track down criminals.

99% of Law Enforcement Officers simply do their job as they have been trained.

Racial bias has been created because of the 1% of law enforcement officers who have abused their rights and power on-duty as

an law enforcement officer.

Works Cited Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2002). The police

officer's dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1314-1329.

Pizio, William C.. Police Officers' Encounters with Disrespectful Citizens. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2012. Ebook Library. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

Schmalleger, Frank. (2014). Criminal Justice 10th Edition. A Brief Introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson.