DEADLINE: Thursday, July 16 (midnight)
POINTS:
Carrie asked: Do police profile and what's the difference between profiling
and reasonable suspicion? - Sam did a great job in addressing that and
in my opinion is right on the money. I won't duplicate her info but I'll
add to it with the example I used in another post on this topic. When I'm
working in a mostly African American neighborhood and I see a car load of
white kids driving through my antennas go up. When they turn onto a block which is known for selling narcotics I would become very interested. When they
stop in the middle of the street and no one get's out of the car I'm
extremely curious. And when someone else walks up to the car, leans in for
a second or two, and then leaves I know for sure I want to learn more about
these kids in the car. Point of this? If I stop that car when I first notice
that car full of white kids I'm racial profiling. However, after observing the rest of that situation unfold I've gotten reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime has taken place (narcotic sales). Am I guilty of racial profiling? Yup. I noticed that car because of the race of the occupants. Is it also part of police work? Yup, I think so. As someone else had stated, part of police work is playing the odds. Odds are that white kids driving through this neighborhood aren't dropping off homework or visiting their sick granny.
As far as the example used regarding the tattooed/pierced kids (I was one of those by the way, to a lesser degree) as Sam said it would be profiling. Stopping ANYONE based SOLELY on how they APPEAR is a violation of civil liberties. All stops need to be articulated and explained using the totality of circumstances (where is this person, what is this person doing, how is it being done, etc). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio is sort of a quickie lesson in "Stop and Frisk" law for any who aren't familiar and actually care.
Finally regarding the recent SCOTUS decision regarding search incident to arrest, I aggree that it is a bit restrictive. But if I'm not mistaken, and I'll admit I haven't done the research yet, it applies to a rather narrow set of circumstances. according to http://jaablog.jaablaw.com/2009/04/21/scotus-decides-major-search-incident-to-arrest-case.aspx to decision includes the following statement; Police may search the vehicle when .it is reasonable to believe that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle.. But .[i]n many cases, as when a recent occupant is arrested for a traffic violation, there will be no reasonable basis to believe the vehicle contains relevant evidence.. So when arresting a person for a traffic offense it is not simply carte blance to search the vehicle. However, this decision doesn't appear to apply to other offenses or instances where that vehicle would need to be towed and impounded, resulting in a search of the vehicle for purposes of verifying/inventorying contents of the vehicle anyway.
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