CONTENT:
Name:University:Course:Tutor:Date:Racial Issues concerning Traffic Stops by Patrol OfficersThe war on racism has been fought for many years with persons such as Martin Luther King jr. being the pioneers in the fight. This issue has continued to be a tough battle since the police have continued to carry on the vice leaving many frustrated and aggrieved. Many traffic stops have been made by state and local law enforcement officers who harass motorists on racial lines (Ramirez, p.34; Council on Crime and Justice, 2003 p.3). In the US majority of minorities are stopped by officers on the roadways. According to Muffler, p.116 in the book “Racial profiling: issues, data, and analyses” police officers would have substantially more likely to record the race of a driver during motorists stops if the driver was a majority than if the driver was a white and the rate and/or severity of traffic violations committed by minorities would have to be substantially greater than those committed by whites (Rice, White, & Robin, p.81).There are areas where traffic stops are mainly made; they include; INS inspectors at the land border crossings, border patrol agents at the major highways (Massey, & Denton, p.72). For the traffic stops much legislation has been proposed however few have been passed. Fifteen states such as Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia as of October 1999 had taken some actions to address the issues of racial policing of motorists. Particularly North Carolina and Connecticut have enacted legislations that ensure the collection and compilation of traffic stops data on motorists; this has also introduced in other eleven states.To be able to establish if there is racism in the traffic stops data that needs to be collected include; driver`s race or ethnicity, age, gender, reason for stop, location for stop, search conducted, legal basis of search, obtain consent, results of stop, any law broken (Free, p.69). For any ...