The Environmental Context of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion. Such profiling came under considerable public scrutiny beginning in the 1990s when the media drew substantial attention to racial profiling in traffic stops. This study examines whether the heightened public scrutiny generated by the media as well as legislative and organizational changes that ensued changed police officers' patterns of searches among black and white drivers. Using traffic stop data from Rhode Island between 2001 and 2005, the results demonstrate that racial disparities in searches are significantly reduced when news media coverage is putting more pronounced pressure on police organizations and police departments to make changes in leadership. These findings suggest that public scrutiny through the media and administrative commitment to fairness may be important first steps in reducing biased behavior in traffic stop enforcement.