History of Racial Profiling
Profiling, a term once used to identify drug couriers in the 1970’s and 80’s, has now turned into a negative police tactic and a form of judgement against those of color. Racial profiling has grown to be one of the most controversial and problematic situations across the nation. Imagine trying to catch a plane, but then you're stopped by law enforcement because you look too much like a threat since you’re Muslim. Also, if you're African American or Hispanic you are more likely to be pulled over because you seem like you're carrying contraband or just driving while black. Due to racial profiling, it appears to be that instead of being innocent until proven guilty, certain people are automatically guilty because of their skin color alone.
Operaooooooooperation Pipeline
![Picture](/uploads/2/9/6/6/29668621/829381.jpg?520)
In the 1970s-1980s, the Drug Enforcement Administration, also known as the DEA, began working on a training task known as Operation Pipeline. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the objective of Operation Pipeline was to "train uniformed officers on identifying illegal activity indicators while they are engaged in traffic enforcement operations." When applying techniques learned from this operation, officers would need to find evidence of concealment of drugs and/or money in the vehicle, quick, point-to-point driving, age, and race.
The Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center of NEU says, "In some cases, the profiling techique was distorted, so that officers began targeting Black and Hispanic male drivers by stopping them for technical traffic violations as a pretext for ascertaining whether or not the drivers were carrying drugs." In other words, law enforcement changed their original tactics of profiling so that only Black and Hispanic males were pulled over because they seemed more likely to be carrying drugs.
The Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center of NEU says, "In some cases, the profiling techique was distorted, so that officers began targeting Black and Hispanic male drivers by stopping them for technical traffic violations as a pretext for ascertaining whether or not the drivers were carrying drugs." In other words, law enforcement changed their original tactics of profiling so that only Black and Hispanic males were pulled over because they seemed more likely to be carrying drugs.
In 1998, after investigating the New Jersey State police due to allegations of profiling by race, the U.S. Department of Justice started defining racial profiling as "The practice of singling out members of racial or ethnic groups for relatively minor traffic or petty criminal offenses in order to question and/or search them for guns, drugs, or other contraband."