Legal Definitions - racial profiling

Racial profiling refers to the practice by law enforcement or other authority figures of using someone's race, national origin, or ethnicity as a primary or significant factor in deciding to subject them to suspicion, investigation, or different treatment, rather than relying on individual behavior or specific evidence of wrongdoing.

Here are some examples illustrating racial profiling:

• Example 1: Retail Security
  A department store's loss prevention officers consistently follow and monitor customers of a specific ethnic background more closely than other shoppers, based on an unsubstantiated belief that individuals from that group are more prone to shoplifting. They initiate surveillance on these customers without observing any specific suspicious behavior from them.

  This illustrates racial profiling because the officers are using ethnicity as the primary reason for heightened suspicion and surveillance, rather than observing specific, individual actions that would warrant such attention.

• Example 2: Border Control
  At an international airport, customs and border protection agents routinely select passengers arriving from a particular region of the world for secondary screening and extensive questioning, even if their travel documents are in order and no specific intelligence suggests wrongdoing. This selection is made predominantly based on their country of origin.

  This demonstrates racial profiling because the agents are using national origin as the salient factor to determine who receives additional scrutiny, rather than individual risk assessments or specific intelligence related to those particular travelers.

• Example 3: Local Traffic Enforcement
  In a city, police officers frequently pull over drivers of certain makes or models of cars if the drivers are young and from a specific racial group, operating under the assumption that such individuals are more likely to be involved in drug dealing or other illicit activities. These stops occur even when there are no observable traffic violations or other individualized reasons to suspect criminal behavior.

  This is racial profiling because the officers are using race and age, combined with the type of vehicle, as the primary basis for suspicion and intervention, rather than observing actual traffic infractions or having specific, individualized reasons to suspect criminal activity.